Manipur duo gallant in defeat

Sydney: Boxer Suresh Singh and judoka Brojeshwari Devi may have been eliminated from competition, but both put up a decent show before bowing out of the Olympic Games.

Young Suresh Singh had a spring in his walk and a smile on his face the other day when Hemanta Singh, the sports minister of Manipur, the state to which he belongs, visited the Olympic Village. Suresh and three other Manipuri sportspersons were pleasantly surprised to receive a cheque of Rs 200,000 each from the minister. The reason: they had done the state proud by making the Olympic team.

There was promise of more. The minister said the four sportspersons, boxers Suresh Singh and Dingko Singh, judoka Brojeshwari Devi and weightlifter Sanamacha Chanu, would get houses and other rewards if they brought home medals. All this seemed to have worked wonders for the Manipuri athletes.

Suresh Singh began his fight with gusto against the more fancied Korean Kim Ki Suk, who like the Indian, is just 20. For the first two rounds, Suresh was right there with the Korean, who had booked his berth to Sydney by winning the qualification tournament in Seoul, South Korea earlier this year.

The two boxers were level on points but then suddenly the tide turned, or it seemed to turn as the Korean was given a 5-0 verdict for the third round. That put him far ahead. Try as he might, the gallant Suresh was unable to make up the deficit in the fourth and final round despite winning that 2-1.

The final verdict went 9-5 in the favor of the Korean. And poor Suresh walked out crestfallen and bewildered. But he had not disgraced himself.

In judo, Brojeshwari Devi won two bouts before going down to Liu Yuxiang in her third bout. She earlier beat Arijana Jaha of Bosnia Herzegovina and then beat Ulrike Kaiser of Liechtenstein, the winner of the gold medal in the Olympic Games of Small States. Even after the loss to Liu Yuxiang, Brojeswari Devi still had a chance as she went into the repachage round. Brojeshwari once again lost, this time to Ioana Maria Dinea, a bronze medallist at Austrian Grand Prix this year.

Manipur's two other representatives are still in the fray. Sanamacha Chanu is being touted as a medal prospect in many quarters. Sports Illustrated magazine has placed her third in the prediction list for the 53 kg category in women's weightlifting. Dingko Singh, fighting in the 54 kg bantamweight category, has a first round bye and he will be entering the ring for the first time on September 21.

India Abroad News Service