Krishan in medal round at Youth Olympics

NEW DELHI: The boxing tournament of the 1st Youth Olympic Games got underway on Saturday in the International Convention Centre right in downtown Singapore.
A total of 66 boxers from 49 countries (six in each weight category) are vying for medals in probably the last major international boxing tournament with the eleven-category system.
The qualification process was very stringent in that only the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalists of the Youth World Boxing Championships at Baku made the cut for the 1st Youth Olympics.
The other 22 places were allotted by AIBA to those Countries that unfortunately could not get their boxers qualified for the Youth Olympics. India had two boxers who qualified ie. Vikas Krishan (Gold Medal) and Shiva Thapa (Silver Medal) at the Qualifying Tournament in Baku.
The quarterfinals of the five lower weights were contested in the afternoon - two boxers per category had received byes, making it straight to the semifinals.
India's Vikas Krishan - one of the highly rated boxers of the 1st Youth Olympic Games, with a Youth World Championships gold medal and an Elite Indian National Championships title under his belt and who is from the Army Sports Institute, Pune - had a strong opponent in Armenian Hrayr Matevosyan.
At the end of Round 1 the scoreline read 1:1 pts. However in the 2nd Round, Vikas made intelligent moves by side stepping tactically as directed by his Coach Mr G Manoharan who is himself a former Olympian Boxer (Moscow Olympics 1980), whereby his opponents defences were opened upand chalked up an insurmountable 6:1 pts lead.
In the 3rd Round Vikas scored one more pt and maintained his lead to win with a final score of 7:2 pts in the quarterfinal contest and move into the semifinals after a tough bout. "No, it was not difficult," said Vikas, who has been boxing for just four years. "I had stronger opponents at the Indian Elite Championships, and I want to win this Youth Olympics. My bigger goal is the London Games in 2012." Coach G Manoharan, Asst Coach BB Mohanty and the Team Doctor Dr TK Tamta were ecstatic at this wonderful victory. The Asst Coach and the Team Doctor have been sent at the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation's expense as it was felt that the two Indian Boxers needed to be fully supported in terms of Medical Assistance as well as two Coaches / Seconds are required in the corner while the bouts were in progress.
Vikas now meets his Youth World Championship Silver Medalist opponent Petrauskas Evaldas of Lithuania in the semi finals on 22 August 2010. In the other quarterfinals today Petrauskas had defeated Vahrenholt Thomas of Germany by a score of 6:2 pts.
India's other entry Shiva Thapa who is also from Army Sports Institute, Pune and a Silver Medalist at the Youth World Championships in 54 kgs got a bye and moved into the semifinals. He now meets Zack Davies(GBR) who is the 2009 British Youth Champion on 22 August 2010 who had also got a bye into the semifinals.