Boxer Vijender, touted by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) as one of the main medal prospects for India at the Beijing Olympics, lived up to his tag yesterday with a comprehensive victory over 2004 Athens gold-medallist Bakhtiyar Artyayev of Kazakhstan.Vijender beat the ‘best boxer’ of the last Olympics by a 12-7 margin to enter the semi-finals of the first AIBA President’s Cup tournament in Chinese Taipei. It was sweet revenge for the Indian, who had lost a close bout to Artyayev in the 2006 Asian Games semi-finals. Vijender had been leading through most of the four rounds back before losing to a flurry of blows from his opponent in the dying stages of the bout.But, on Tuesday at the Hsinchuang Stadium in Sinjhuang City, the 75-kg middleweight pugilist flustered his opponent with his quick movement and fast straight punches. Caught off guard, the Kazakh boxer was on the backfoot straight away. He traded a flurry of combination in a bid to make a comeback, but could not match Vijender, according to national coach GS Sandhu. “Vijender was calm and cool and it was his excellent movement that really put confusion in the mind of his opponent,” Sandhu told The Indian Express from Taipei. Vijender now takes on Angkhan Chomphuphuang of Thailand in the semi-final on Friday.But the other three Indian boxers crashed out of the tournament. AL Lakra lost to Dmytro Bulenkov of Ukraine in the 57-kg category, Jitender was beaten by Yunusov Anvar of Tajkistan 9-5 on points, and Dinesh Kumar lost his 81-kg bout 24-8 to Abbos Atoeve of Uzbekistan today.
