Commonwealth Games gold medallist Akhil Kumar capped a remarkable comeback from a career-threatening injury lay-off to become the second Indian boxer to qualify for Beijing Olympics through the Asian qualifying tournament in Bangkok, on Friday.
The 27-year-old bantamweight pugilist, who was laid low by a wrist injury that took away more than half of his 2007 season, continued with his devastating form in Bangkok and advanced to the final of the first Asian qualifying event which booked him a Beijing berth.
Akhil out-pointed his People's Republic of Korea opponent Ryom Chol Jin in a semi-final bout.
"I was very nervous before the bout because Olympic qualification was on the line. But a bit of tension always works to my advantage and that is precisely what happened today," Akhil said.
Akhil, also an Asian Championship bronze medallist, will face his biggest test in the tournament when he takes on Athens Olympics silver medallist Worapoj Petchkoom of Thailand in Saturday's final.
"It is a huge match for me but I have nothing to lose now. I have achieved what I wanted to from the tournament, but I would try to win the gold medal as that is the ultimate," an ecstatic Akhil said.
It is indeed a remarkable comeback for the boxer, who was battling to save his career after picking a wrist injury at the beginning of 2007.
The Haryana lad then found support from the Mittal Champions Trust, which helped him recover from the injury, while taking care of his training and rehabilitation.
"I was going nowhere after picking that injury but they came in at just the right time and brought my career back on track," a thankful Akhil said.
National coach G S Sandhu was also effusive in his praise for the determined boxer.
"He has been in tremendous form throughout and, hopefully, he would do it one more time to get the gold tomorrow," he said.
A L Lakra (57kg) is the only other Indian to have qualified for the Olympics so far after he made the quarterfinals of last year's World Championship in Chicago.
However, Akhil's success was the lone highlight of the day for the Indians as the other three Indians lost their semi-final bouts.
In the 48kg category, Amandeep Singh lost a close bout to Uzbekistan's Sultonov Rafijon. Amandeep went down 14-17 in an ill-tempered fight which saw the Indian being warned by the referee.
Dinesh Kumar (81kg) also came a cropper as he was beaten 9-25 by Chinese Xiaoping Zhang, and later Manpreet Singh (91kg) was ousted 5-15 by Jasur Matchanov of Uzbekistan.
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