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After winning two medals in the prestigious Beijing Olympics, India is ready to get the third one as the boxer Vijendra Kumar enters the semifinals after defeating Carlos Gongora of Ecuador in the quarterfinal of the 75kg category bout on Wednesday. The victory ensured at least a Bronze for India.

Vijendra Kumar, boxer from a small town Bhiwani in Haryana, managed to gift India the first ever Olympic medal in boxing. He dominated the entire bout and won the quarter finals by 9-4. He entered the quarter finals after defeating Thailand’s Champuphuang Angkhan 13-3 in a one sided match.

There was no answer to upper cuts and jabs by Vijender and the rival had no clue as to what was going. Vijender is benefited by his height and long reach to unnerve the Thai who looked confused

Earlier in the Asian Championship in Ulan Bator, Mongolia Vijender had lost to the Thai. Now with this historical victory he has taken his that revenge also.

The Haryana lad is now one of the India’s best medal hope. Wrestler Sushil Kumar had won a bronze in the freestyle event earlier in the day whereas Abhinav Bindra won first-ever Olympics gold medal for the country in the 10meter air rifle event.

Tags: beijing olympics, Bhiwani, Bronze Medal, gold medal, Haryana, India, Olympics, Vijendra Kumar

Abhinav Bindra clinched first ever individual Olympic gold medal for India on Monday in the men’s 10m air rifle shooting. The gold has set India to 10th place in overall Olympics medal tally in Beijing.

Bindra, the 25-year-old businessman from Chandigarh, followed his world championship title two years ago to finally win a landmark gold medal for India. Athens Games champion Zhu Qinan of China won the silver and Henri Hakkinen of Finland took the bronze at the Beijing Shooting Hall in Beijing.

Bindra won by scoring 700.5 points, 596 in the qualifier and 104.5 in the final to claim the gold. He overcame a two-point deficit against Hakkinen and one point against Zhu after the qualification rounds to hold the title.

Zhu came in with 699.7 this time and Hakkinen, a member of Finland’s armed forces who is taking part in his first Olympics, scored 699.4 points.

While talking to media, the sharpshooter said gladly, “I can’t describe how happy I am, it’s the thrill of my life. That’s about it. It’s hard to describe. I just went for it. I knew I was lying in fourth. Thankfully it went my way and I just went for it.”

Fellow Indian shooter, Gagan Narang who scored 595, too almost made it to the final leveling at the fifth place but lost out on a final place in count back.

Bindra, a Khel Ratna awardee, won the 2006 world championships and finished seventh in Athens four years ago.

Tags: abhinav bindra, beijing olympics, first olympic gold, gold medal, indian shooter, Olympics, Shooting

Monica Devi, the Indian weightlifter who was found guilty in dope test and withdrawn from the Indian Olympic contingent on Tuesday night claims that the tests were faulty and she is innocent.

Giving her clarification Monica said, “I don’t know how it has happened. So far the tests that took place haven’t shown any indications. Politics has been played with me. So far four tests have taken place. The results of these four tests haven’t come out yet. A player will never commit such mistakes.”

Pleading innocence after being denied a Beijing flight last night in controversial circumstances, she said, “I am innocent and I am being targeted. This according to me is politics played by Shailaja, along with the Association. I won’t make such a mistake at all because I don’t want to end my career like this,”

While addressing a press conference, she said, “Forget life ban, and give me public execution if I am dope cheat.”

Monika was India’s lone entrant in the 69 kg category and had won silver and two bronze in the Asian Championships in Japan in May this year. She qualified amidst controversy surrounding the other candidate Shailaja Pujari who was accused of bribing the IWF Secretary.

The Indian team got a shock as Monica Devi, who was being dubbed as a medal hope was withdrawn from the squad after she allegedly failed a dope test just hours before the team was to depart for Beijing.

Addressing the media along with Monica was General Secretary of IWF BR Gulati who said, ”There are all chances that samples could have been changed or samples could have been polluted as well. We had informed the government in writing about the inability of the lab to conduct proper test.”

“The entire thing has been sabotaged and it needs to be thoroughly checked.” He added.

Tags: beijing olympics, dope test, monica devi, Olympics, weight lifter