Harpal Singh in boxing quarters
Heavyweight pugilist Harpal Singh became the third Indian to move into the quarter-finals in
boxing at the Asian Games in Busan on Sunday.
Displaying excellent technique and agility, Harpal kept
his medal hopes alive, beating Lebanon's Mansour Ali 20-16 in a
keenly-contested +91kg category bout at the Masan Gymnasium.
The Indian made full use of his reach against the
Lebanese, who never allowed himself to be bogged down despite
the early barrage of punches unleashed by Harpal.
Harpal, who opened up a good lead in the early stages of
the contest, later conceded a few points but still managed to win by a four-point margin.
The going, however, turned out to be much too tough for
the other Indian in the fray today, as Som Bahadur Pun stumbled
at the first hurdle itself.
Pun started on a promising note but could not maintain
the rhythm and went down to China's Tongzhou Chen 14-29 without
posing much of a challenge in the featherweight (57 kg) category.
Commonwealth Games gold winner Mohammad Ali Qamar and
Jitender Kumar are the two other Indians who are already in the quarter-finals in the light flyweight and middleweight categories respectively.