Cuban boxers dented India’s campaign at the ongoing World Cup 2008 at the Megasport Sport Palace in Moscow on Saturday.
Three of the four Indian boxers in the semi-finals - Jitender Kumar (flyweight), Akhil Kumar (bantamweight) and AL Lakra (featherweight) - had no answer whatsoever to the onslaught of rampaging Cuban pugilists. The fourth, Dinesh Kumar, lost to Artur Beterbiev of Russia. He retired in the second round after taking heavy blows from his opponent.
Seasoned Akhil Kumar was the only one to match the might of Leon Alarcon Yankiel, but he too failed to salvage the situation as he lost in the countback after scores were tied 4-4 at the end of the fourth and final round.
All went well for him till the end of second round as scores were level at 2-2. But in the third round Akhil lost a point and subsequently came under pressure from the 2008 Olympic silver medalist.
Akhil tried to make up in the fourth round and even caught up at 4-4 but it was too late to squeeze in a decisive point.
In 51 kg category, Jitender Kumar (red) could not challenge Laffita Hernandez and went down 14-6. "Though Jitender had a lead of two points after the first round, he lost the tempo in second round and trailed 4-6. Some of his punches too did not get points for him.On the other hand, his Cuban opponent was quite lucky.
"Surprisingly, some of his wild swings in the first round were also rewarded by the referee. He continued in the same vein in the second round till he closed out the fight in the fourth round. But Jitender fought very well,” said coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu from Moscow.
"Jitender and I lost to better opponents as both Hernandez and Yankiel are Olympic silver medalists. We played well but were bit unlucky in the end," Akhil said over phone from Moscow.
In a low scoring match, AL Lakra too lost (6-3) to a shrewd opponent in Torriente Idel. "Torriente had better body movement and was successful in evading punches. Both the boxers had a cautious approach but he managed to score in between and won ultimately," the coach said.
"The Cuban boxers won all the bouts but they went in with a guarded approach and were apprehensive of Indian boxers, which is a positive sign for Indian boxers. We will work hard and try to come back in coming tournaments," he added.