Dingko Singh crashes out
in first round
Dingko Singh's hopes of retaining the gold medal he won in the bantamweight category at the last Asian Games were shattered as he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of his North Korean
opponent in the first round of the boxing event at the 14th Asian Games, in Busan, on Thursday.
Billed as a gold medal prospect before the team set out
for Busan, Dingko seemed totally clueless against his North
Korean challenger Phyong Chol Choe, who registered an emphatic
26-6 victory.
Dingko's first round exit has come as a big setback for
the five-member Indian team which was hoping to return with a couple of medals.
The North Korean turned on the heat straightaway with a
flurry of punches to unsettle Dingko and the Indian could
never really recover from the early assault, conceding one
point after another.
"I knew it was going to be difficult, but I din't think
I would lose by such a margin. I am surprised myself," Dingko
said after the bout.
Dingko, who had won the gold medal at the Bangkok Games in 1998, said he had hoped to restrict the
margin of defeat to 15 points but it did not happen.
"He is a very experienced boxer and made good use of his
experience today. He was much superior than me and it was
always going to be difficult to get past him," Dingko added.
The Indian boxer was left trying to block the barrage of
punches that were thrown at him and could not initiate
any counter attack.
"I am disappointed by the way I lost. But it is a good
learning experience. I should take it in that spirit," a dejected Dingko said.
With Dingko's premature exit, the task of collecting
medals for the country will rest on Commonwealth Games gold
winner Mohammad Ali Qamar, Som Bahadur Pun, Jitender Kumar and
Harpal Singh, who will feature in their preliminary bouts from
tomorrow.