Boxer Thapa assured of a silver at Youth Olympics

Shiv Thapa assured India of at least a silver in bantam weight boxing after storming into the final with an overwhelming performance but his compatriots disappointed on the eighth day of the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore on Sunday.

Thapa, who got a bye in the quarterfinals, thrashed Zack Davies of Great Britain 14-4 at the International Convention Centre to give Indians something to cheer about.

The Indian World Youth Championships silver medalist made his aggressive intent clear from the beginning and he took a 5-1 lead at the end of first round as the Briton was left doing the catch-up job.

Thapa clinched five points to his opponent's two in the next round to take 10-3 lead after the second round. The Indian never let his opponent off the hook and sealed the bout 14-4 with four points to his opponent's one in the final round.

In the summit clash, Thapa will meet Cuban Robeisy Eloy Ramirez who beat Dawid Michelus of Poland 3-1 in the other semi-final. Ramirez had beaten Thapa in the final of the World Youth Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan in May.

World youth champion Vikas Krishan, however, lost his 60kg semi-final bout 3-4 to Lithuania's Evaldas Petrauskas.

Vikas, who had beaten Petrauskas in the World Youth Championships final, went neck and neck with his opponent 1-1 and 2-2 after the first two rounds only to lose in the final round.

Vikas though will get a chance to clinch a bronze as he will fight the other losing semi-finalist Daniel Echeverria of Mexico on Monday.

The losing semi-finalists do not get bronze automatically in the Youth Olympics and they will have to fight out for the medal.

The Indians cut a sorry figure in athletics too. Kuldeep Kumar finished ninth in boys 10,000m walk final while Indrajeet Patel was 11th in boys 3000m race final.

In men's 10m Air Rifle shooting final, Navdeep Singh Rathore finished eighth with a score of 685.5 (587+98.5). He had a series of 96, 98, 100, 97, 98, 98 in the qualifying round at Singapore Sports School.

Indian paddlers also came up with disappointing performances. Mallika Bhandarkar lost to Mercedes Nagyvaradi of Hungary 2-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 2-11 in women's second stage singles match.

In men's singles, Avik Das lost to Elmurod Holikov of Uzbekistan 7-11, 11-8, 2-11, 14-16, 8-11.