07 September,2009 09:47 AM IST | | Agencies
The first two bouts of the 91kg category yesterday was a sheer delight for many boxing fans not for Indians or Irish though.
Probably the two finest boxers in their weight class, Oleksandr Usyk of Ukraine and Osmai Acosta Duarte of Cuba gave a boxing masterclass to Manpreet Singh of India and Con Sheehan of Ireland respectively.
Usyk, the reigning European champion, bobbed, ducked and danced his way to a 16-2 victory while Acosta, the bronze medallist from the Beijing Olympics, dominated the hard-hitting Sheehan.
"It was good practice," the 24-year-old Cuban said. "I did not give all I had."
Meanwhile, Pedro Roque, head coach of the Cuban national team and AIBA Coach of the Year 2008, celebrated the unparallelled accomplishment of completing the round of 32 without any of his 11 boxers losing a bout.
"I don't remember such a performance from any national team," said Roque.
In one of the most bizarre boxing matches in recent history Vitalijus Subacius of Lithuania defeated Dzhakhon Kurbanov of Tajikistan. The two boxers traded punches for eight minutes and 59 seconds, with Kurbanov leading 15-10. But with one second to go, the referee stopped the contest and declared Subacius the winner.
Courtesy: aiba.org
