Haryana lad Manoj Kumar in the 64kg welter weight category made a huge difference for the Indian contingent by defeating two times Olympic bronze medalist Evaldas Petrauskas of Lithuania.
Advertisement
Manoj fought well and beat Petrauskas in round of 32 bout. Manoj will next be up against the fifth-seeded Uzbek Fazliddin Gaibnazarov in the pre-quarters, scheduled for Sunday.
Evenly matched on pace and agility, Manoj and Petrauskas were quite distinct in their attacking approach.
While Petrauskas, the London Olympics bronze victor in lightweight 60kg division, aggressively tried to engage the Indian from close range, Manoj preferred to back-peddle and hit from a distance.
The second round followed a similar script with Manoj peppering his opponent repeated with sharp jabs and dominating the proceedings which saw all three judges awarding the round to him.
Petrauskas went flat out, attacking the Indian in the second round but the Indian managed to stave off the challenge by sticking to his strategy of keeping a distance and hitting occasional uppercuts to his opponent’s body.
Shiva will be representing India in the men’s Bantamweight (56 kg) category. Both Vikas Krishan and Manoj Kumar have registered victories in their respective bouts so far.
“My opponent was strong, but my punches had power”. He displayed marvelous technique and skills of counter-punching. “It’s the result of my 20 years’ struggle that has given me the result”, Manoj said. I knew he was a hard opponent, so I didn’t go with any strategy to the ring. I have no God givent talent. He credits his success for his elder brother Rajesh Kumar who is also coach of Manoj Kumar.
Advertisement
Gurcharan Singh Sandhu, the head coach of the Indian boxing squad, praised Manoj for his performance.
