Indian Pugilist Akhil Kumar at the Beijing Olympics stormed into the quarter finals of the light-weight category beating Sergey Vodopyanov of Russia in the bantamweight category. In a fiercely competed match where both the boxers were tied 9-9 at the end of the game, it was left to the jury to give the match verdict in favour of Akhil Kumar.

The boxer from Haryana was trailing 2-6 early in the match but bounced back to level with the world champion Sergey Vodopyanov following which the jury awarded the win to Akhil Kumar based on his overall performance. Akhil Kumar doled out a remarkable performance on the eve of Independence Day, he had earlier mentioned that he’s emotionally charged because of the significance of this day, this emotional charge showed in his punches and strategy that he adopted to outplay the Russian.

After winning the match at the Beijing Olympics gymnasium, Akhil Kumar said ‘”It was not easy, for he is the world champion but once I leveled the score, I knew I cannot lose,” He also added “It’s not possible to assure you of the gold but I can tell you that I’m here to win only gold. That should be the spirit. Well done Akhil, when we lost the hope for any more medals after Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi’s defeat, you have shown us some hope.

Well is this victory gonna open new chapters in Indian Sports History as we have already seen 2-3 big heroes emerging from this Beijing Olympics: First Abhinav Bindra, the shooter who won India’s first Individual Gold, then it was Saina Nehwal, ace Badminton Player, who missed the medal by whiskers and now Akhil Kumar. Again, I will emphasize that we should not let these effort go in vain. Even if Akhil Kumar looses in next round, we should appreciate his efforts, give hearty welcome and groom him for 2012 London Olympics. Well done Akhil Kumar, your efforts at Beijing Olympics have done Indian proud. Beating World Champion itself a feat and we salute you for that.

Sports Authorities – Please do not let these efforts and talent go into vain. We want more heroes like these for the next Olympic Games.

Best wishes for Akhil, strike hard. Woh ek marre toh tum dus maarna :)

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