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This is an archive article published on March 13, 2009

Jitender suffers early upset

Many had turned up to watch Jitender Kumar’s bout on the second day of the AK Mishra boxing tournament...

Many had turned up to watch Jitender Kumar’s bout on the second day of the AK Mishra boxing tournament on Thursday,but the Olympian’s first match after winning the bronze medal in the World Cup at Moscow proved to be a disappointment.

Jitender recently shifted his weight category from flyweight to bantam,but those interested in seeing how well he would fit into Akhil Kumar’s shoes had to watch him emerge as the loser from his bout against Torak Kharpran. The Meghalaya boxer caused a major upset when he beat Jitender 11-9 after having trailed 5-7 in the second round.

Up 3-1 in the first round,Jitender decided to up the tempo and went into attack mode. However,Torak reduced the deficit to 5-3 before the second round ended at 7-5. As the game moved into the third round,chants of ‘Jitender,Jitender’ echoed throughout the hall. But while trailing,Torak came up with his best attack of the game and earned two points that drew him level at 9-9. With only a few seconds left,the underdog decided to give his all and scored two more points for his victory.

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“Initially,I had just decided to watch his game and read his moves. Once I gained enough knowledge about his game,I decided to attack. I think he was lacking in stamina and also,the fact that he has changed his weight made things a bit difficult for him,” said Torak.

Jitender,meanwhile,admitted that lack of match practice proved to be his undoing. “I am definitely upset,but Torak played brilliantly in the third round and never gave me the chance to score,” said Jitender.

Other results:

Lightweight (60kg): Paunandes Paulus (Malaysia) bt Jonathan Sutton Mauritius 10-1,Rakesh Kalaskar (Jharkhand) bt Neeraj Goyat (Services Control Board) 7-5,Jai Bhagwan (HAR) bt Diwakar Prasad (RSPB) 4-1,Pradip (AIP) bt Ajit Gurang (Nepal)

Welterweight (69 kg): Uralov Doniyor (UZB) bt Saurabh Varma (PUN) 17-7,JS Patil (SSCB) bt Vijay Kumar (HAR) 8-0,Alzhanov (KAZ) bt Devendera Maharajan (NEP) 38-5

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Middleweight (75kg): Surender Kumar (AIP) bt Yoloashev Resul (TKM) 10-6,Kilichev Farruh (UZB) bt Rana Bahadur (Meg) 14-2,Sukhinder (RSPB) bt Rahul Kumar (JHA) 12-4

Light Heavyweight (81 kg): Jagat Singh (Young Colts) bt Deepak Maharjan (Nepal) 19-10

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