India faced mixed fortunes on the ninth day of the Olympic Games in Sydney today when light heavy boxer Gurcharan Singh punched his way like a street-fighter into the quarter-finals while the dream run of athlete K M Beenamol came to an anticlimactic end at the semi-final stage. Gurcharan Singh pummelled South African Danie Venter into submission with his unbridled aggression and earned a referee verdict, with 27 seconds remaining in the fourth and final round, after forcing Venter to take his fourth mandatory standing count in the 81 kg bout.
The Indian, by then, had taken an unassailable 26314 lead over Venter who was totally outboxed especially in the third round which Gurcharan, who has 17 international medals to his credit including 11 gold, won 10-3. 23-year-old tall and rangy Punjab fighter, boxing with an unusual open-chested stance, used his height and reach tTlood effect and totally outclassed the African pugilist with his all-out attacking style.
Gurcharan has a very tough quarter-final opponent in Andrei Fedtchouk, a hard punching Ukrainian southpaw, standing between him and the honour of becoming the first Indian to reach the boxing medal round in the games history. He had stopped South Korean Choi Kee-Soo 11-9 in the first round.
However, the high experienced by the Indian camp following Gurcharan`s fine display toned down later when Beenamol ran poorly in the women`s 400 m semi-final heat 2 and trailed in last in a slow 52.04 seconds to get eliminated from the fray.
Bureau Report