Assured of Olympic berth, Vikas settles for bronze

TIL Desk Sports/ Assured of an Olympic berth, Indian boxer Vikas Krishan (75kg) on Friday settled for a bronze medal in the International Boxing Association’s (AIBA) World Qualifying Tournament after he was ruled out of the semifinal clash owing to a cut on his forehead. He sustained the cut on Thursday night during his quarterfinal contest against Korea’s Lee Dongyun. The Indian triumphed 3-0 to make the semifinal and assured himself of an Olympic quota berth.

However, the injury he sustained required stitches on his forehead, which forced him out of Friday’s semifinal clash against Turkmenistan’s Achilov Arslanbek, who got past Italian Cavallaro Salvatore in his quarterfinal contest.“Vikas Krishan can’t box today as he was declared medically unfit by the official doctors of the competition in the morning weigh in and medical examination because of stitches above his eyes,” an official of the Indian team told.

Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar (64kg) was the other Indian boxer to secure an Olympic ticket yesterday by winning in the quarterfinal. Manoj will be up against European champion Pat McCormack of Britain in the semifinal today. McCormack had defeated Frenchman Amzile Hassan in his quarterfinal bout.