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This is an archive article published on September 6, 2009

Vijender fights into pre-quarters

Justifying his top seeding in the middle weight category at the world boxing championships,Vijender Singh punched his way...

Justifying his top seeding in the middle weight category at the world boxing championships,Vijender Singh punched his way into the pre-quarters with a 13-8 win over Kazakhstan’s Azamat Belgibayev on Saturday. The world No 2 had to fight his way into the match as he was down by four points after the first round before narrowing the gap to one point in the second.

“I made a defensive start,which helped Azamat take a four-point lead in the opening round. The bout turned out to be tough because I took it lightly in the opening round. We are trying out various strategies and I am feeling quite happy that I got a tough bout in my opening round,” Vijender said.

The Bhiwani boxer,who has been liking the new three-round format,took a five-point lead in the final round as Azamat was completely outplayed by the Indian’s attacking tactics. “We have been playing in the new format for some months now and we have all adjusted well to it. Azamat was tiring a bit in the third round,so I took complete advantage of that and went all out. Four of our boxers had lost in the opening round and I was sure I did not want to be the fifth one,” Vijender said.

Dinesh Kumar and Manpreet Singh are yet to open their campaigns in the 81 kg and 91 kg categories respectively and national coach GS Sandhu was confident of a fine performance from them. “I am counting a lot on Manpreet. He did well against the Europeans in the Russian meet last month and has been in the right frame of mind throughout the last five days. Dinesh has recovered well from his injury and he is raring to go,” Sandhu said.

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