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Rohit Mahajan in Incheon Indian team wins silver in the men’s 25m center pistol event Vijay Kumar, the London Olympics gold medallist, was able to smile today. He’s been living in misery over the last several months. The C-6 and C-7 disc of his spinal cord, roughly between the shoulders, have been giving him trouble.
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A star falls, a straggler rises Kazakh boxers’ success no mystery Sejwal wins bronze
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Silver lining once more Indian team wins silver in the men’s 25m center pistol event
Vijay Kumar, the London Olympics gold medallist, was able to smile today. He’s been living in misery over the last several months. The C-6 and C-7 disc of his spinal cord, roughly between the shoulders, have been giving him trouble. He’s been living in pain — there are shooting pains, sometimes his hands go numb. The pain preyed on his mind, his confidence was eaten away, and he began to wonder if he’d ever recapture his form of 2012. The frown on his forehead became permanent. Today, though, the Himachal shooter was able to shed some of the gloom — he won a silver medal with the Indian team in the 25m Centre Fire event. Missing the gold by two points was disappointing, and that kept him rather sad, but he was relieved that he’d got a medal at least. The team of Vijay Kumar, Pemba Tamang and Gurpreet Singh — all of them Armymen — combined to shoot a total of 1740 points, two points behind the Chinese team of Yongde Jin, Chuanlin Li and Feng Ding. The silver at the London Olympics has made Vijay the big star, and all eyes were on him today at the Ongyeong International Shooting range — but Pemba Tamang shot the best among the three Indians with 581, Gurpreet was the second best with 580, and Vijay got a 579. They all had 60 shots at the target, 10 points being rewarded for the best shot. Vijay’s day was bittersweet — he got the silver, but a better show from him could have won India the gold. It was Vijay’s turn to shoot, and India needed a perfect 10 to tie with China. Vijay faltered, the bullet didn’t come close to the centre of the target, and Vijay got an eight. If Vijay had got a 10, the score would have been tied at 1740, and India would have been awarded the gold because they had more perfect hits than the Chinese. “Asian Games shooting events are very competitive,” Pemba Tamang later said. “We have been training for this, and we knew that we would have to fight for a medal. As we planned yesterday, we thought we had a chance of winning the gold.” Vijay Kumar said that he’s had enough of the pain and has decided to undergo surgery. “I’ve decided to put an end to it,” he said. “The surgery could be career-threatening, but I have decided to undergo it. Maybe within the next week or so, I will go under the knife in Mumbai. I will have to prepare for the World Cup and all the qualifying competitions next year.”
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A star falls, a straggler rises Incheon, September 26 Akhil had done well in the first round, Suarez had done better in the second; in the third, the Filipino was passive, and Akhil tried to goad him by dropping his guard right through — then Akhil managed to land scoring punches. He seemed to have the lead but, right at the end, Suarez landed at least three strong punches, and Akhil’s gum-guard flew out — those were the moments when the fight was lost. Kuldeep through
Kuldeep Singh, 25, literally son of the soil, was a young farm hand in Patiala not too long back. He’s an international boxer now, and into the quarterfinals of the 81kg-plus event of the Asian Games; he’s well over six feet tall, strong and muscular, but he’s not forgotten his days of poverty when a good diet was a distant dream. He liked sport, and to take up boxing seriously, he joined the ‘Multipurpose Boxing Academy’ in Patiala, founded by Harpreet Singh. Harpreet liked the skill, the strength, the determination young Kuldeep had in abundance. He brought him to the notice of Gurbax Singh
Sandhu, the national coach, who was looking for a sparring partner for Vijender Singh “I was impressed with his ability, his reach and his determination,” says
Sandhu. Kuldeep thus became a regular at the national camps, sparring with boxers like Vijender and Sumit
Sangwan. “He is very disciplined and hardworking, and his attitude is very good, too,” adds
Sandhu. “So we asked him to stay with the country’s best boxers at the national camp and began to train him, too.” Being the same size as
Vijender, which brought him to the notice of Sandhu, became an obstacle, too. Vijender was clearly the best boxer in the country, and it became virtually impossible for Kuldeep to represent the country. Kuldeep would win the national titles when Vijender wasn’t participating, but never beat the senior boxer in the national trials. “I never really got a chance to box at a big event because Vijender was there in my weight category,” says
Kuldeep. “We could not have replaced Vijender, who won every time he stepped into the ring,” says
Sandhu. Kuldeep, thus, moved up from Vijender’s 75kg category into the 81kg category by gaining weight. “I thought that the opportunity would never come, and it’s only because I moved to 81kg that I am here,” says the boxer, who now works with the Indian Railways. In this category, too, there was someone who proved to be superior to Kuldeep in the new class — Sumit
Sangwan, who represented India at the CWG in Glasgow. But Sangwan withdrew from the trials for the Asian Games due to a hand injury. The chance that Kuldeep had waited for years came his way, finally. “I want to show that I am good, too,” Kuldeep says. Today, Kuldeep was better than Thailand's Anavat Thongkrathok in their pre-quarterfinal, winning through a 2-1 split decision.
Thongkrathok, 9 inches shorter than Kuldeep, was aggressive but ugly to watch. He would press his head into Kuldeep’s torso and try to land quick hooks and straight blows. Kuldeep struggled to keep him away, and was a bit baffled by the style and the speed of
Thongkrathok. “I tried to hit him with hooks, but a lot of my punches were flying over his head,” Kuldeep said. “He was crouching, and thus also butting me with his
head.” Kuldeep, though, kept his own head, and managed a close win. Kuldeep knows he’s come far from the days of poverty and insecurity — he’s got hopes of going further in the tournament. |
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Kazakh boxers’ success no mystery Incheon, September 26 The ‘lioness’ in question is Birzhan Zhakypov, a very ferocious fighter from Kazakhstan. Zhakypov, a 30-year-old southpaw, is the world No. 1 in the 49kg class, and the reigning world champion. And he’s just one of the four world No. 1 boxers Kazakhstan have brought to Incheon. The others
are Daniyar Yeleussinov (69kg), Zhanibek Alimkhanuly (75kg) and Niyazymbetov Adilbek (81kg). They also have the world No. 2 in the 91+kg category, Ivan
Dychko, and the world No. 3 in the 60kg class, Berik Abdrakhmanov. Kazakhstan won four titles in the World Championship last year — and also two silver and two bronze medals. They won medals in eight of the 10 weight categories, easily eclipsing traditional boxing superpowers like Cuba and Russia. Exactly how does a country of 18 million people, a third of whom are living below the poverty line, produce such a remarkable range of boxers? Perhaps it’s due to their right priorities — their boxing contingent here has five national coaches. The support staff includes a doctor, physiotherapist and a sports psychologist. There is also a group of 20 boxing coaches from across the country who are here as the support staff — they’re here to watch, observe, learn and teach as well. “One, boxing is supported very well by the government,” said Nurgali Safiullin, the 57-year-old chief coach of the team, through a translator. “Financially and operationally, everything is provided. We have a schedule for our training and competitions. The finances are good, and we can go wherever we need to train and compete.” When Kazakhstan became free after the break-up of the USSR, it inherited the extremely disciplined training regimen of the communist era coaches and institutions. When the Soviet Union splintered in 1991, the new government didn’t neglect boxing. “We were supported by the government right from the start,” said Safiullin, who was a coach with the junior USSR team before the formation of the new country. “They supported us even during the difficult days of the break-up of the Soviet Union.” The Kazakhs treat their athletes well. The national team boxers receive a monthly salary of at least $2,000, and the figure goes up if the boxer does well in international tournaments. When a top-level boxer becomes the world or the Olympic champion, the salary could go up
to $5,000. “That’s very good money in our country, for most of the boys come from poor families,” Safiullin, a big and friendly man, said. The average monthly wage in the country is less than $600 — boxing provides an avenue to escape poverty. When the boxers end their careers inside the ring, there are possibilities of working with the boxing federation. “For example, our Olympic champion in London, Serik Sapiyev, is getting a masters degree in sports management in London,” Safiullin said. “When he’s finished, he’d get a job with our sports federation.” He says some of them, using the money they’ve earned from the sport, set up their own businesses. Kazakhstan, the largest landlocked country in the world, has 24 boxing academies, in different cities — that’s quite impressive for a country of 18 million. Safiullin mentions that he’s known India’s chief coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu for a long time. Sandhu himself is aware of the strengths of the Kazakhs. “The thing that works best for them is that every year, they have several big events,” Sandhu said. “They’ve got a new AIBA academy in Almaty, the largest city of Kazakhstan. They plan to hold even bigger events.” The Kazakhs, Safiullin says, are a brave, strong people. “We’ve originated from a strong and powerful tribe, the Kipchaki tribe,” he said. “We always have been good fighters.” That’s going to be very evident here over the next few days. |
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Sejwal wins bronze Incheon, September 26 In the event, though, Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Balandin caught up and passed the Indian swimmer, and then Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki too went past him; however, Sejwal’s bronze remains a very creditable achievement. Balandin timed 27.78s, Koseki was 0.11s behind at 27.89, while Sejwal was .37s behind the Japanese with a time of 28.26s. Coach, Nihar Ameen said they’ve been focussing on the shorter races, because the timings of the Indian drop over the long races. This, clearly, suggests the lack of endurance in swimmers. Interestingly, when Virdhawal Khade won a bronze medal in 2010, the event then too was the 50m butterfly. Twenty-four years before that, Khajan Singh had won a medal in the butterfly race too, but it was the 200m race. Sejwal said, “I was half a second off my best time, so I’m not very happy. I could have won a higher position if I’d matched my personal best here. My best time is 27.83s and I wished I’d managed that here.” |
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Zhou lifts heaviest weight ever by a woman
Superheavyweight Olympic champion Zhou Lulu hoisted the largest single weight ever by a woman to give China a seventh Asian Games weightlifting gold on Friday — and then said the lift was only “so-so.”“I’m not satisfied with that. It was only so-so,” she said, after lifting 142kg in the first discipline, 4kg below her Olympic performance. “I’m disappointed that I didn’t perform well in the snatch.” She added: “I just feel normal. There’s nothing special about breaking the world record.” Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal and Anaka Alankamony outplayed their Singapore opponents 2-0 and Mahesh Mangaonkar, Saurav Ghosal and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu eased past Kuwait 2-0. Both the men's and women's teams assured the country of at least two more silver medals. Saina loses in quarterfinals; Kashyap out
Saina made her exit at quarterfinal stage for the second time running after she was beaten in three games (18-21, 9-21, 7-21) by her Chinese nemesis Wang Yihan. Parupalli P Kashyap was beaten (12-21, 11-21) by Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in their Round of 16 match. Manu Attri and Sikki Reddy lost (18-21, 23-21, 15-21) against Danny Bawa and Yu Yan Vanessa in their mixed doubles Round of 16 match. Archers thrashed by S Koreans; in race for bronze
The women recurve team comprising Deepika Kumari, L Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi were thrashed 0-6 by favourites South Korea in the last four stage. The Indians now will be up against Japan in the bronze medal play-off match on Sunday. The men's recurve team -- Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar — suffered a close 3-5 defeat against Hong Kong in the elimination round. In the individual recurve events with Atanu, Deepika, Laxmirani and Jayanta all failing to make it to the medal rounds. Eves maul Malaysia 6-1, book semifinal berth
Indian eves thrashed Malaysia 6-1 in their last Pool A match and qualify for the semifinals of the women's hockey competition. Rani Rampal (4th minute, 20th) and Jaspreet Kaur (9th, 39th) score two goals each, while Namita Toppo (17th) and Vandana Kataria (50th) were the other goal getters. Malaysia skipper Nadia Abdul Rahman scored the lone goal from a penalty corner. Qatar cagers pull out over hijab ban
The Qatar women's basketball team have withdrawn from the Asian Games after being denied permission to wear the hijab during matches. The players were asked to remove the Islamic head scarf before taking on Mongolia but refused and forfeited. World basketball regulations list headgear and hair accessories among the items that are prohibited on court.
— Agencies |
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Laishram Devendro Singh, the flyweight with lightning quick fists, is India’s best bet to get a gold in the boxing ring here, but the task is huge, not much different from getting into the den of a lioness and stealing her cub.
The ‘lioness’ in question is Birzhan Zhakypov, a very ferocious fighter from Kazakhstan.
Incheon, September 26
