Jitender fetches bronze at Kazakhstan tourney

New Delhi: Olympian Jitender Kumar (56kg) and Santosh Harijan (52kg) lost in the semifinals to settle for bronze medals in the 16th Elite Men`s International Boxing Tournament in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Jitender, making a comeback to the international arena after his bronze medal winning performance at the 2009 Asian Championship, was up against Jakipov of Tajikistan. The 22 year old took a 2-1 lead in the opening round but the Tajik boxer came back in the second to take a two-point advantage. He further stretched the lead in the third and eventually went on to claim the victory at 12-8. "I am disappointed with the result but satisfied my performance in the tournament. This was my first competition after a long break and I hope to do well with more match practice," Jitender said. Santosh, a silver-medallist at the 34th National Games in Jharkhand, went down to Ali Baybozov of Kazakhstan.Santosh, who was leading 2-1 after the first round, lost the advantage to the Kazakh boxer with the score tied at 7-7 after the second. In the final round, Baybozov took the vital one point lead that helped him secure the win at 10-9. Earlier in the tournament, Jai Bhagwan (60kg), making his first international appearance after the bronze medal winning performance at the Commonwealth Games, had to bow out of the tournament due to illness.Commonwealth Youth Games gold-medallist Balwinder Beniwal (64kg) had lost to Jukenbayev of Kazakhstan in his opening bout. PTI