Baku: Asian Games gold medallist Vikas Krishan (69kg) continued his winning run at the 2011 AIBA World Championships with another awe-inspiring performance by defeating Vasili Belous of Moldova here on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old, who already qualified for the 2012 London Olympics on Tuesday, advanced to the semi-finals of the Championship with a hard fought victory and with this win has now equalled the feat of Vijender Singh bagging a bronze at the 2009 Milan World Championship.
Vikas, making his welter weight debut at the world championships, had a tought opponent in Vasili Belous as both the boxers evenly matched each other and tried hard to penetrate each other’s defence throughout the nine minutes of action. The first round saw them notch up 3 points each.
Vikas was slightly quicker than the Moldovan boxer and kept pressing on relentlessly for a breakthrough and took crucial one point lead in the second round, which turned out to be decisive as the final round fetched equal points for both the pugilists. 2010 Youth World Champion went on to book a semi-final berth and a bronze medal in the championships with a 9:8 victory. The round of four in the tournament will see Vikas take on Taras Shelestyuk of Ukraine. Taras beat world number 3 and 2009 world championship silver medallist Andrey Zamkovoy of Russia in the quarters to set up the semi-finals clash.
But there was disappointment for India in the form of Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Jai Bhagwan (60kg) as he lost the chance to bag a world championship medal by just a whisker.
Bhagwan was up against Gani Zhailauov of Kazakhstan in the light weight category. Both the boxers had a very similar style of boxing and were not able to deliver any clean strikes in the opening three minutes of play – the round ended with the score knotted at 3. Second round continued in a similar vein, but the Kazak boxer was able to squeeze in a few jabs more than Jai and took a vital one point lead (5:6).
The 26-year-old Indian tried hard to gain the advantage but was not able play his usual game as Gani did not give him enough space. Jai’s world championship campaign came to an end with a 10:11 defeat. But the 2009 Asian Championship silver medallist will return with a big consolation prize in the form of an Olympic ticket from the tournament.
