Shiva Thapa shines for India at Youth Olympics

Singapore: Boxer Shiva Thapa could get India its first gold medal at the inaugural Youth Olympics here as he outpunched Zack Davies of Britain 14-4 Sunday to enter the finals of the 54 kg category. Davies had the height advantage, but Shiva with his deft left hooks and straight punches took a 5-1 lead at the end of round one. In the second round, Shiva attacked relentlessly and increased his lead to 10-3. In the final round, Shiva added four points to his score. India will be looking to to win its first gold and add to the country’s tally of five medals when he takes on Ramirez Robeisy Eloy in the final. The Cuban boxer, who defeated Michelus Dawid of Poland in the other semifinal Sunday, had defeated Shiva at the World Youth boxing championships in May for the gold medal.Shiva, who sustained a wrist injury during that event at Baku, said he has fully recovered. Another Indian boxer in fray Sunday, Krishan Vikas, lost to Evaldas Petrauskas of Lithuanian 3-4 in the 60 kg semifinal bout. Vikas went down after a close fight against Petrauskas whom he had beaten at the World Youth boxing championshp for the gold medal. Vikas will now take on Echeverria Daniel of Mexico, the other losing semifinalist, for the bronze medal. In basketball, Indian boys defeated SOuth Africa 27-11 in the round robin stage. In table tennis, Avik Das of India lost to El Salvador’s Mejia Luis 10-12, 6-11, 11-6, 9-11 in the men’s singles second stage group match. Earlier, Das went down to Elmurod Holikov of Uzbekistan 7-11, 11-8, 2-11, 16-14, 8-11.In girls table tennis, Mallika Bhandarkar of India lost to Mercedes Nagyvaradi of Hungary 2-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 2-11 in the second stage. Navdeep Singh Rathore finished 8th in the finals of the 10 metre air rifle event. In the boys 3000 m final, Indrajeet Patel finished 11th while in the 10,000 metre walk, Kuldeep Kumar came ninth. India has so far won five medals. Tennis sensation Yuki Bhambri won a silver in the boy’s singles while discus thrower Arjun also clinched a silver Saturday. Indian wrestlers Pooja Dhanda (60 kg) and Satyawart Kadian (100 kg) won silver and bronze medals while H.S. Prannoy won silver in boys badminton singles. IANS