Madan Lal wins bronze in Benazir Bhutto boxing

New Delhi: India`s Madan Lal settled for a bronze medal in the 2nd Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing Tournament in Islamabad going down 12:19 to Pakistan`s Mohammad Waseem in the semi-finals of the 52kg category Thursday.

Lal, the lone Indian to have made it to the semis, advanced to the penultimate round with an impressive victory over the 2010 Commonwealth Bronze medallist Haroon Khan of Pakistan, the younger brother of WBA and IBF World Light Welterweight Champion Amir Khan. In the semi-finals, he came up short against Waseem. Waseem, also a bronze medal winner at the 2010 Commonwealth games in the light fly weight division, took a crucial lead of six points in the first round, catching the Indian off guard. Lal did his best to come back in the second and third, but the Pakistani boxer held on to the advantage. "It was a very tough match compared to the earlier one. He (Waseem) took a sizable lead in the first round. I tried hard to get back in the game but could not penetrate his defence repeatedly and in the end I lost," the Indian Boxing Federation quoted him as saying. Lal admitted that the tournament had been a great learning curve for him. "My performance here has motivated me to do better." Earlier, Indian heavyweight boxers Parminder Singh (81kg) and Narender (91kg) also lost their quarter-final bouts. Parminder could not match the powerful punching of Iranian Majid Hajabbasi and suffered a knockout defeat in the second round. But it was a fight to the finish when Narender took on Nadir Khan of Pakistan. There was not much separating the two boxers during the nine minutes of the bout. In the end, Narender lost to the Pakistani by one point (8:7). IANS