Vijender Kumar reaches Pre-Quarters at WBC

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Vijender Kumar, top seed boxer has qualified for the pre-quater finals at the World Boxing Championship in Milan, Italy after beating Kazakhstan's Azamat Belgibayev by 14-8. In his next match, he would take on Canadian boxer Steve Rolls.

CJ: Yojana Phadnis

Mon, Sep 07, 2009 12:26:12 IST

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Sports News India :

INDIA’S BOXING champion and top seed Vijender Kumar, started his winning streak by qualifying to the pre-quarter finals. He beat Kazakhstan's Azamat Belgibayev at World Boxing Championship, in Milan, Italy. The 23 year old, currently at second position defeated his opponent 14-8. He will take on Canadian boxer Steve Rolls on September 8 who defeated Luca Podda in his qualifiers.

The boxer who hails from Haryana got a bye in the first round and did not get off to the ideal start. He trailed 0-3 in the first round but made a miraculous comeback in the next two rounds, sealing his position in the pre-quarters. He raised the scores to 9-8 in the second round and then finished the round by making it 14-8 in the third round. "It is always great to start off with a win. I am relieved and very happy," Vijender said.

National Coach Gurbax Singh seemed very pleased with Vijender’s performance and lauded his efforts. He was happy particularly with the strategies that the latter used to defeat his opponent. According to Sandhu, Vijender initially started his attack by counter punching and Azamat managed to fetch three vital points for himself from rather soft touches. Then Vijender in the later half changed his strategy and adopted a more aggressive approach. He would move back and attack, earning his scores from upper cuts and right straights. Sandhu however agreed that Azamat was indeed a strong opponent who had judged Vijender’s strategies very well and worked out a plan, but in the end Vijender outsmarted him.

Going into a little history, Vijender Kumar hails from Kaluwa district in Haryana. He did his primary schooling from Kaluwas, secondary from Bhiwani and finally a Bachelor’s degree from Vaish College. He was inspired by his younger brother, a former boxer who now serves in the Indian army. He currently works for the Haryana Police.

He got his boxing training under former National level boxer and Coach Jagdish Singh. He worked overtime to pay for coaching at the Bhiwani Boxing Club where he got his training.

He became the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal when he won a bronze medal in the middleweight category at 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Vijender was recently awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award for excellence in sports. What many don’t know about him is the fact that after achieving success at the international level also, he is a part time model who has bagged quite a few commercials for himself.

Three more boxers from India would be throwing in their punches at the tournament. Fourth seeded Dinesh Kumar would face Reznick Vladimir of Czech Republic in the second round of 81 kg category after getting a bye in the first round. Manpreet Singh will take on Usyk Olexander of Ukraine in the second round in the 91 kg category after he too received bye in the first round. India’s efforts would not end here as Jai Bhagwan (60 kg) will take on Eugen Burhard of Germany in the pre-quarters on Sunday.

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