Four Indians in sight of gold in Commonwealth Boxing

New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) Four Indian boxers are in sight of gold after they stormed into the final of the Commonwealth Boxing Championship here Monday.

Suranjoy Singh (52 kg), Vijender Singh (75 kg), Dinesh Kumar (81 kg) and Parmjeet Samota (91 kg) moved into the title clash with convincing wins over their rivals at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium.

Asian champion Suranjoy defeated Welshman Andrew Selby 4-0 while Olympic bronze medallist Vijender was in a rampaging form and the referee had to stop the contest after his opponent Selemani Kidunda of Tanzania suffered head injury in the third round. But by then, Vijender had taken a huge lead of 10-1.

Dinesh also came down heavily on another Tanzanian Leonard Machichi forcing the referee to stop the contest in the third round. The Indian was leading 8-1.

In the last bout of the day, little known Parmjeet of Haryana registered a shocking 5-2 win over Ross Henderson of Scotland.

Egged on by the home crowd, Parmjeet made his intentions clear against the well built Henderson right from the start. Parmjeet stunned the crowd by taking a 2-0 lead in the first round and after the end of second he was 5-1 up. In the last round he conceded one point.

In the final, Parmjeet will face Joseph Parker of New Zealand. Parker defeated England's Frazer Clarke 7-3.

India coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu was happy with the performance of all his wards, especially Parmjeet.

"Parmjeet's win is a great thing for Indian boxing. Our boxers never found much success in the heavy weight category but Parmjeet's win will surely go a along way. He fought boldly right from the start and dropped his guard. I was shouting from the sidelines asking him to keep his guard up. But he fought in his own style," said Sandhu.

Parmjeet said it was his best win till date.

"I knew he was taller than me and that was the only doubt in my mind. But I was not afraid of dropping my guard against him," he said.

Results (Semi-finals):

52 kg: Suranjoy Singh (India) bt Andrew Salby (Wal) 4-0; Oliver Lavigi (Mri) bt P.D. Suresh (Sri) 3-1

75 kg: Frank Buglioni (Eng) bt Nathan McEwen (NZ) 10-2; Vijender Singh (Ind) bt Selemani Kidunda (Tan) referee stopped the contest head blow (RSCH)

81 kg: Callum Jhonson (Sco) bt Rodney Prosper (Mri) 7-2; Dinesh Kumar (Ind) bt Leonard Machichi (Tan) referee stopped the contest (RSC)

91 kg: Simon Vallily (Eng) bt David Aloua Rogers (NZ) 10-5; Elly Ajowi (Ken) bt Stephen Simmons (Sco) 9-3

+91 kg: Joseph Parker (NZ) bt Frazer Clarke (Eng) 7-3; Parmjeet Samota (Ind) bt Ross Henderson (Sco) 5-2