Indian boxers fall at final hurdle, settle for four silvers at CWG 2014

Hopes were high from Indian boxers with four of them reaching the finals at Commonwealth Games but all lost their respective summit clashes to settle for the silver medals at the SSE Hydro here Saturday. L. Sarita Devi, L. Devendro Singh, Mandeep Jangra and Vijender Singh went down in the final bouts to bring home four more silvers as the gold remained elusive from the discipline at the Glasgow Games. To start with, former World Champion Sarita went down 1:3 to Australia’s Shelley Watts in the women’s 57-60 kg final. The Manipuri started her bout well to win the first round 30:27 but looked completely drained of energy at the start of the second. [caption id=“attachment_1646733” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Even Vijender Singh fell at the last hurdle. AP[/caption] The 32-year-old veteran also fell down once in the second round which she lost with a reversed scoreline of 27:30. The next two rounds totally belonged to Shelley, who looked much fresher than her Indian counterpart, to bag them with the same scorelines of 30:27. The bronze medals went to Northern Ireland’s Alanna Audley-Murphy and Mozambique’s Maria Machongua. Following her state-mate, Devendro too lost the final 1:2 to defending champion Paddy Barnes of Northern Ireland in the men’s 49 kg category. The two-time Olympic bronze medallist Barnes convincingly won the first two rounds with the same score of 30:27. Though the diminutive Indian won the last round 29:28, it was a tad bit late and Barnes was successful in defending his title. Losing semi-finalists Fazil Kaggwa of Uganda and Welsh Ashley Williams took home the bronze. A few hours later, Jangra also had to be content with the silver, going down 0:3 in the men’s 69 kg bout to England’s Scott Fitzgerald. The bronzes were won by Tulani Mbenge of South Africa and Northern Ireland’s Steven Donnelley. The Haryana pugilist displayed fantastic spirit and also cut open Fitzgerald’s eye in the opening round but also had to endure some accurate punches and a knock down in the first round. In the second round, the Englishman completely outplayed Jangra who suffered two more knock-downs to also lose the second round 25:30. The 21-year-old Jangra showed good spirit in the final round but Fitzgerald was the better man on the day. After three losses in the finals, much was expected from Olympic bronze medallist Vijender. But he too disappointed, losing 1:2 to England’s Anthony Fowler in the men’s 75 kg final. Vijender, who had won the bronze four years ago and silver in 2006 Melbourne, lost the first two rounds 26-30, 27-30. He came back strongly in the final round to win 30-27 but also had to suffer a knock-down during the round. In all, India secured four silvers and a bronze from boxing at the Glasgow Games. IANS