Dinesh Kumar failed to make the medal round after being outclassed by Russian Artur Beterbiev in the light heavyweight quarterfinal on Wednesday, leaving Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh as India’s lone medal hope in the World Boxing Championships in Milan, Italy.
Dinesh was trailing 3-5 after surviving three standing counts before a fourth count just over a minute into the second round prompted the referee to award the bout to Beterbiev.
“A loss always hurts but I am happy to have at least reached the last-eight stage. It was going to be tough against Beterbiev, who is a World Cup gold medallist,” Dinesh said.
A year after he broke India’s Olympic jinx in boxing, Vijender is on the verge of ensuring the country’s maiden medal at the Worlds. The top seed advanced to the quarterfinals with a hard-fought win over Steve Rolls on Tuesday night. The Beijing Games bronze medallist had a low-scoring 4-2 win over his Canadian opponent. His next opponent is Sergiy Dereyvanchenko of Ukraine.
