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Vijender loses in semifinals, wins bronze
Beijing Olympics bronze winner Vijender Singh had to be content with a bronze medal in the European Grand Prix boxing event in Usti Nad Labem, Czech Republic, after going down 0-2 in the 75kg semifinal to European Championship silver medallist Victor Totiujanstsi of Moldova on Friday.
Beijing Olympics bronze winner Vijender Singh had to be content with a bronze medal in the European Grand Prix boxing event in Usti Nad Labem, Czech Republic, after going down 0-2 in the 75kg semifinal to European Championship silver medallist Victor Totiujanstsi of Moldova on Friday.
Another Indian, Suranjoy Singh advanced to the final of 51 kg category with a 11-4 victory over Ireland's Declan Geraghdy in the semifinals.
Earlier in the day, Vijender, competing in his first event after Beijing, had defeated P Trikaliotis of Greece in just two rounds to reach the semifinals.
"Victor is a shrewd boxer. He fought from a distance while Vijender kept attacking throughout. Victor had a guard up, unfortunately Vijender could not break through it," Indian team's coach C Kuttappa told PTI from Usti Nad Labem.
Two other Indians -- Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Jai Bhagwan (60kg) -- have also reached the semifinals, thereby assuring two more medals.
Manoj registered a brutal victory over Scotland's J Thain while Jai Bhagwan won on countback after being tied 2-2 with Hungarian M Varga.
However, Narjeet Singh (54kg) and Olympian A L Lakra (57kg) crashed out of the event after losing in quarterfinals. While Narjeet lost 4-11 to Australian L Boyd, Lakra went down 1-7 against Armenian A Hovhannisyan.
