Pugilists begin medal quest on Saturday

Indian pugilists begin their campaign in the Olympic Games on Saturday with Jitender Kumar exchanging punches with a superior Andriy Fedchuk of Ukraine in the opening bout of the 81-kg weight category at the Peristeri Hall.

Jitender, the 26-year-old Commonwealth Games silver medallist, had bowed out in the second round in the 75 kg class in the previous edition of the Games in Sydney and will strive hard to better his record this time around.

Jitender is known for his quicksilver reflexes but needs to put all his skills to full use in order to advance to the next stage in the first Olympics of the millennium.

Vijender Kumar, the youngest Indian boxer to qualify for the mega-event, will be up against Turkey's Karagollu Mustafa in the first round of the 64-kg light welterweight class on Sunday.

Vijender, who got a passport to the Olympic ring by getting thorough the Olympic qualifiers in Karachi, is brimming with confidence since winning the bronze in the pre-Olympic event at this very Peristeri Hall and needs to retain his composure to make the quadrennial showpiece more than a mere learning experience.

Two other boxers -- Akhil Kumar (flyweight) and Divakar Prasad (bantamweight) -- will take to the ring on August 17 in an event that has been traditionally dominated by Cuba, Russia and the United States though Asians have also made their mark of late in the lower weight categories.

While Akhil will fight it out with Frenchman Jerome Thomas, Prasad, who won the silver in the Grand Prix tourney in the Czech Republic last month, will take on Morocco's Hamid Ait Bidhrade.

Akhil, also an Afro-Asian Games bronze medallist, has dominated his rivals from Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan and North Korea, and fought close bouts against opponents from Uzbekistan on way to the Olympics, but he still needs to add some sting to his approach to make a mark.

Though Indian chief coach Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu has predicted a good show from his wards, it remains to be seen how far the Indians can go to prove their guru right.