Kuldeep Singh has already assured himself of a medal in the senior mens boxing national championship,but the Railways boxer is not content with that. With a comprehensive 8-1 semi-final win over Haryanas Rahul,Kuldeep stayed on track for his third consecutive national title on Thursday. But his hopes of representing India on the international stage continue to remain unfulfilled. Having achieved competitive success within five years of picking up the sport,the 22-year-old India number 2 in the 75kg category (middleweight) is keen on participating in the Commonwealth Games at home in October,but Kuldeep admits he isnt too confident of making the grade in his prefered category. Reason: with only one spot available in each category,Olympic medallist Vijender Singh is considered a certainity in the 75kg. Kuldeep,therefore,has decided to try his luck in the 69kg instead. I want to perform for my country but in the middleweight category I have no chance since Vijender bhai is sure to compete,so now I plan to go down and fight in a lower category, Kuldeep says. Though the final list of participants for the CWG will only be decided after selection trials in August,Kuldeep is not too hopeful of getting a look-in,having been denied a chance to participate in the Commonwealth Championships earlier this year. This,despite a consistently good international record he won bronze each in the German Grand Prix in 2008 and the 2009 China Open and silver in the AK Mishra tournament. Vijender bhai did well for India in the Olympics and he is undoubtedly much more experienced than me. But the association should have given us a chance to compete in the test event, says Kuldeep. Results: Semi-finals: 49 kg Vipin Kumar bt M Murugan 7-6,Sunil Kumar bt Amandeep Singh 4-3; 52kg Madan Lal bt Suraj 2-1,Sanjay Singh bt Santosh Harijan 2-1; 56 kg Chote Lal Yadav bt Torak Kharpran 13-6,S Suresh bt Kuldeep 6-4,60 kg Vikas Malik beat Kulwinder 3-2,Vikas bt Diwakar 4-2,64kg Jitender Mann bt Vikram Singh 2-1,V Santosh Kumar bt Manoj Kumar 4-1,69 kg Dilbag beat Sandeep 9-3,Dilbag Singh bt SB Tamang 5-1,75 kg Kulwant Singh bt Rana Thapa 9-0,Kuldeep Singh bt Rahul 8-1,81 kg Dinesh Kumar bt Vikas Singh 10-0,Jasveer bt Sujeet Kumar 11-1,91 kg Narender bt Ranjeet 4-0,Praveen Kumar bt Manpreet Singh 5-4; 91 kg Jogender bt Paramjeet Somota 8-0,Hardeep Singh bt G Shan Mugha 10-0.
