Vikas Krishnan settles for Bronze at Boxing Worlds

Vikas Krishnan settles for Bronze at Boxing Worlds India's teenage boxing sensation loses to Ukraine's Taras Shelestyuk in semis

India's teenage boxing sensation loses to Ukraine's Taras Shelestyuk in semis

India's Vikas Krishan lost in the Welterweight (69Kg) semi-finals of the AIBA World Championships and had to settle for the bronze medal. The 19-year-old Asian Games gold medallist went down 12-15 to Ukraine's Taras Shelestyuk and therein equalled Beijing Olympics bronze medallist Vijender Singh's feat of bagging a bronze at the Milan World Championships in 2009.


India boxer Vikas Krishan

Vikas, making his debut at the tournament, put up a tough fight nevertheless against Shelestyuk,u00a0 who had beaten World No 3 and 2009 world championship silver medallist Andrey Zamkovoy of Russia in the quarter-finals.

Both the boxers started cautiously, waiting for the other to make the move. The Ukrainian, who seemed to have studied Vikas well, brought all his experience to the fore and did not let the young Indian play his usual game. With some powerful infighting he took a 4:2 lead in the first round.u00a0 Vikas tried hard to get back in Round Two but could not break Shelestyuk defence.u00a0

The Ukrainian, who won bronze at the 2010 European Continental tournament, thereafteru00a0 opened up a four-point gap. The final round saw Vikas -- the 2010 Youth World Champion -- come back strongly in the final round with some feisty combinations. He scored six points as opposed to Shelestyuk's 5, but fell short by three points in the overall tally. Four of India's 10-man contingent here -- Vikas, Jai Bhagwan (60 kg), Manoj Kumar (64 kg) and Devendro Singh (49kg) reached the quarter-finals of the tournament to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics.

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