Bhaskar wins, two others lose in World Youth Boxing C`ship

New Delhi: J Bhaskar out-punched his Kenyan rival Issa Mwangi Chege in his opening bout but two others bit the dust on another mixed day for the Indian boxers in the AIBA World Youth Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Bhaskar thrashed Chege 13-4 in a lop-sided fly weight (51kg) encounter to enter the second round of the tournament, which is the only qualifying event for the Youth Olympic Games scheduled August-September in Singapore. The Indian led 7-1 in the first round and remained aggressive in the next two as well to eke out a comfortable win in the end. But there was disappointment for Manjeet Kumar and Harpal Singh, both of whom lost in contrasting fashion. In the feather weight (57kg) second round, Manjeet was pummelled 2-18 by Moldova`s Dimitri Galagot. But Harpal Singh fought hard in the light welter weight (64kg) opener before going down 7-8 to Azerbaijan`s Tamerlan Abdullayev.Harpal`s was heartbreaking loss as the the Indian was neck-and-neck with his rival and trailed 3-4 in the opening round. He kept attacking but ended the second round 4-5. Trailing 6-8 with a little over one minute to go in the final round, Harpal closed in to make it 7-8 with 30 seconds to spare. However, the fight counted for little as the local favourite eventually edged past Harpal by the smallest of margins in the tournament which features over 450 boxers from 90 countries.Tomorrow Shiva Thapa (54kg), a former gold medallist from the prestigious Hyder Aliyev Cup for juniors, will open his campaign against England`s Qais Dad Ashfaq. Only the semifinalists will make the cut for Youth Olympics and in some categories the draw is so crowded that a boxer will have to compete for at least four rounds before making the last-four stage. PTI