Lakra boards Beijing flight

Oct 31: India’s A.L. Lakra becomes the first Indian pugilist to qualify for next year’s Beijing Olympics

Doha bronze medallist India’s Anthresh Lalit Lakra overpowered Shahin Imranov of Azerbaijan to storm in to the quarterfinals of the World Boxing Championships and hence becoming the first Indian boxer to earn an Olympic berth for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Commonwealth gold medallist thrashed Azerbaijan's Imranov 15-9 in the pre-quarterfinals of featherweight category at the University of Chicago's (UIC) Pavilion here on Tuesday.

He will now fight it out with Chinese Yang Li in the quarter-final on Thursday. Yang Li defeated Brazilian Davi Souza of Brazil 13-4 to make the cut for the last-eight stage bout.

With this win, there is ray of hope arises among the Indian camp that the other two Indians Jitender (51kg) and Jai Bhagwan (60kg), who are in the fray for the Olympic berth as well, would also come through in this final hurdle for the qualification of next year’s Olympics.

Jitender will be up against Russian Georgy Balakshin in the pre-quarterfinals, while Bhagwan will fight it out with Colombian Darley Perez later in the day.

Lakra opened his account with a two-point lead and further extended it to four at the end of the third round. He collected four more points, while Imranov could only managed two, in the concluding round to snatch a victory with an ease.

Lakra has made a good comeback this year after a year-long hiatus from competitive boxing. He had also won the Commonwealth gold in Glasgow, Scotland.

More than 650 boxers from 120 countries across the globe are vying for top honours and the top eight appearances in each of the 11 weight categories will book their berth for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.