Akhil box for glory and gold, stuns Olympic silver medallist

Bangkok, Feb 2 (UNI)India's Akhil Kumar boxed to glory and gold as he thrashed Olympic silver medallist Worapoj Pitchkoom 21-11 to claim the bantamweight (54kg) title at the Asian Olympic Qualifying boxing championship here today.

Akhil, who had already booked his berth for the Beijing Olympics yesterday after defeating Jin Chol Ryom of North Korea in the semi finals, earned the only gold for India in this championship.

The 27-year-old pugilist will be the third Indian boxer to compete in two olympics.The others are, Gurcharan Singh (1996,2000) and Jatinder Singh (2000,2004).

He is the second Indian after A L Lakra to qualify for the Beijing Olympiad. Lakra had secured the first quota place in the Chicago World championship last year.

Apart from one gold, India also bagged three bronze medals- Amandeep Singh (48kg), Dinesh Kumar (81kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg)- in the championship.

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