London: India’s young pugilist, Shiva Thapa’s first Olympic experience turned out to be short-lived as Mexico’s Oscar Valdez Fierro outpunched him in the very first round of the boxing event at the ExCel South Arena on Saturday.
Thapa, the youngest boxer in the team to make the cut at just 18 years, lacked the experience to counter the Mexican who carved out a comfortable 14-9 victory in the men’s bantam (56 kg) category.
Thapa showed signs of staging a comeback in the second round, which went in his favour 4-3, but the Mexican tilted the scale decisively in his favour in the third and last round with a 7-3 verdict, much to the disappointment of the Indian supporters who had come to cheer the teenaged sensation.
Many of the Indian contingent officials were also present at the venue to cheer Thapa, who unfortunately could not make any further progress in his maiden Olympic Games.
The Indian youngster paid the price for being far too defensive in the opening round and it allowed his opponent to dictate terms.
In the crucial third round, the Mexican attacked with a vengeance as he unleashed a flurry of punches, forcing Thapa to virtually run for cover.
In the dying moments of the contest Thapa was again forced to defend as a barrage of punches were unleashed at him.
“It is a little disappointing to start in this way, we were expecting that Shiva would go further though the competition at this level is very tough,” said Brig P K Muralidharan Raja, who is the secretary of the Boxing Federation of India and is also the Acting Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent.
Fierro said after his clash that he was a little rusty and nervous before the bout against Thapa.
“I was a little rusty at first, a little nervous. I was a bit tired – that’s how it is with first fights. Now I’ve done the first fight I’m ready for the second,” he said.
Indian men’s team out of archery event
The archery venue – the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground – also failed to provide cheer for the second day running when the men’s team of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai were knocked out after losing to Japan in a tense pre-quarterfinal shoot-off.
The Indian trio, who had qualified bottom of the heap at 12th in the rankings round on Friday, were tied with their Japanese rivals at 214 after the regulation four rounds.
But the threesome of Yu Ishizu, Hideki Kikuchi and Takaharu Furukawa edged past the Indians 29-27 in the shoot-off in which the archers shoot alternatively.
The Indians were leading with the last set of three arrows left in the quiver before the Japanese equalised to force a tie-breaker.
The Indians will now be seen in action in the individual elimination rounds that will commence on Monday.
The archers expressed disappointment with Banerjee conceding that a few scores of eight let the team down while Talukdar blamed pressure and sickness that hit the camp in the run-up to the event as the major causes for the defeat.
“I am really disappointed. We were leading by three points. We all shot well but some of our 8s put us down. The crowd was really good. It was the best field I have ever seen,” said Banerjee.
“I feel it has happened because of the pressure. We tried to hit 10s but it was always 9s,” Talukdar said.
“All three of us were in bed for two or three days, so our bodies got weak. Yesterday, during the ranking round, I could not shoot properly because of less body power,” he added.
Tarundeep, though expressing disappointment, saw the brighter side too over the game attracting a good many viewers here.
“I was disappointed. We lost the team round but the game is still on. We have to focus on the individuals. It’s very good to see that archery is getting more popular. We are performing in front of so many people here – we don’t have the same support in India,” he said.
There was some good news for India on Saturday, when shuttler Parupalli Kashyap made it through his first round match in the men’s singles. Full coverage of this story on page 11.