First, note the name. It’s Singh, Vijender Singh. A couple of hours after stomaching the disappointment of losing his semi-final bout on Thursday, the 22-year-old says the Olympics information sheet has it wrong. He is not Vijender Kumar.

His Olympics campaign at an end — and a happy one on balance, bringing India its first medal, a bronze, in boxing — Vijender has now moved beyond the apologies he kept repeating to his country for failing to gain a slot in the middleweight (75 kg) final. He now has the clarity to see the mistakes he made.

Yes, he says, he would have played differently if he could start that match again: “I made mistakes. In the third round I got aggressive. I should have used my head.”

It’s a different analysis from the one floating around on this rare blue-sky day, by which he lost the bout in the first round when Cuba’s Emilio Correa Bayeaux took a 2:0 lead. After all, so much of the Indian strategy at these Games has balanced on running away with bouts on the momentum of an early flurry of points.

Bayeaux’s impressive straight punches and left jabs gave him distance and a ready chance to connect for a point every time Vijender attacked. But in the second round Vijender managed to narrow Bayeaux’s lead to 4:3. It was in round three that the Cuban got the better of Vijender, taking his lead to 7:3. Till 30 seconds to go in the fourth, and last, round, it had gone up to 8:3, before Vijender got the benefit of two points awarded to penalise the Cuban for pushing, and brought the final score to 8:5.

... contd.