The 10th day for India in London Olympics bring a hope for another medal as woman boxer MC Mary Kom on Monday entered into the semi-final by beating her Tunisian rival Maroua Rahali 15-6 in a one-sided quarter-final.
According to Olympic rule in Boxing, both losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze in the competition. So if she losses in semis, she still will get a bronze medal.
She will meet stronger contestant British pugilist Nicola Adams of Britain who had earlier knocked out Mary Kom in World Championship quarter-final by just two points.
The second good news for India is male athlete Vikas Gowda qualified into the final round of discuss throw yesterday. The final round will be played today. He threw the metallic disc to a distance of 65.20 metres in his second attempt. The US- based Indian has a best throw of 66.28m.
On the other hand, India’s star boxer Vijender Singh lost his match in the quarterfinal in 75-kg category, which leads to a heartbreaking elimination from London. He was knocked down by his Uzbek rival Abbos Atoev by 13-17.
Having been beaten by Vijender 7-0 in the final of the 2010 Asian Games, the Uzbek was determined to take revenge this time.
The two boxers took time to get the measure of the other in the first round that ended 3-3.
The crowd was completely behind the Indian as chants of "jitega jitega India jitega" reverberated in the arena.
In the second round, the Indian was slow off the blocks, allowing Atoev to take a two-point lead by winning the round 7-5. Atoev's made his flurry of punches count and Vijender also hit back with an upper cut that disbalanced the Uzbek.
The Uzbek was more tactical in the second round that helped him to take a crucial lead. Vijender with a left hook tried to breach Atoev's defence, but it was not his day.
In the third and the final round, Atoev displayed some lovely defensive skills as Vijender ran out of steam.
It was curtains on India's shooting campaign at the Olympics with rifle shooters Narang and Sanjeev Rajput and trap exponent Manavjit Singh Sandhu failing to qualify for the final rounds of their respective events here at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
Narang, who won the bronze in men's 10-metre air rifle, and Rajput finished 20th and 26th, respectively, in the 50m three -position event.
For Sandhu, a former World Champion, it was disappointment again for the third time as he finished 16th in the qualifiers and missed the final cut.
But it has been a highly successful campaign for Indian shooters.
Besides Narang and Kumar, another rifle shooter, Joydeep Karmakar finished fourth and missed the bronze only by a whisker.
--With IANS Inputs--
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