Indian boxers assured silver medals at Finnish boxing tourney

Indian youth boxers Dheeraj Singh (52kg) and L P Prasad (49kg) are assured at least silver medals after entering the finals of the 33rd International Tammer Tournament, in Tampere, Finland.

While Dheeraj overpowered Charlie Edwards of England in an enthralling contest, Prasad drubbed Welsh boxer Ashley Williams in another spirited performance.

Dheeraj, a bronze medal winner at the 2011 Agalarov Cup in Azerbaijan, was in top form as he took the fight to the English boxer right from the word go.

Edwards, last year's silver-medallist and 2011 European Championships bronze medallist, was found wanting against the aggressive Indian.

With the help of some quick jabs and nifty footwork, Dheeraj took a 7-4 lead after the opening three minutes.

The second round belonged to Edwards, who came back strongly with his two-phased attacks. But Dheeraj was not far behind and maintained an overall two-point lead with his sharp counter-attacks (12-10).

In the final round, he took the game away from Edwards with his superior power play and finally won the bout with a score of (19-14).

In the final, he will lock horns with Elie Konki of France.

Meanwhile, Prasad, a multiple Junior National champion, had to dig deep against his Welsh opponent.

Both boxers started strong but Prasad, with his accurate attack and solid defence, squeezed in a slender one-point lead after the first round (6-5).

The second round was a similar story and again the 17-year-old Indian won the round 6-5. He went on to cement his place in the finals with a 17-14 victory in the end.

He will take on Jack Bateson of England in the final.

Earlier in the tournament, MD Hussam (56kg) lost out in a closely-fought bantamweight quarter-final against Abdul Majid Omar of Sweden, while Deepak Tanwar (64kg) went down against Batyrzhan Jukembayev of Kazakastan in the light welter weight round of eight.