Vijender Singh clinched the gold in the men’s 75kg category Friday to cap a stupendous performance by the Indian boxers at the Asian Games.
Vijender, who was left bitter after finishing with the bronze in the New Delhi Commonwealth Games, blanked World champion Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan 7-0 in a lopsided bout. It was sweet revenge for the World No.1 Indian, who had lost to the Uzbek in the quarterfinals of the World Championship earlier this year.However, the other two Indian boxers — Santhosh Kumar Virothu and Manpreet Singh — who took the ring for gold medals bouts had to content with silvers.
Santhosh was pummelled 1-16 in the 64kg final by Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan while Manpreet was thrashed 1-8 by Mohammad Ghossoun of Syria in the 91kg category.
The performance of the Indian boxers was their best in the Asian Games and they will return home with nine medals, including two golds, three silver and four bronze. In the previous edition at Doha, the Indian could win merely two bronze through Vijender and Verghese Johnson.
However, in this edition, India had as many as five boxers — Vikas Krishan, Vijender, Dinesh Kumar, Santhosh and Manpreet — entering the final in the various weight categories.
Krishan gave India its first gold in boxing Thursday after winning the final of the 60kg bout while Dinesh finished with a silver in the 81 kg.
Suranjoy Singh (52kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) lost their semifinal bouts to end up with bronze medals.
Five-time world champion M.C. Mary Kom (51kg) and Kavita Goyat (69-75kg) also ended up with bronze in the women’s boxing, which made its debut in Asian Games.
In three men’s finals scheduled for Friday, Vijender lit up the day for India with his dominating performance.
Coming for his bout minutes after Santhosh bit the dust in his final match, Vijender was quick to open his account and led 2-0 in the first round. Showing solid attacking and defensive technique, the Indian stretched his lead to 5-0 in the second round. He held his grip in the third and the deciding round and fell to his knees in elation when the final bell rang.
