Vijender Kumar ensured another medal for India at the Beijing Olympics when he beat Carlos Gongora of Ecuador in the quarter-finals of the 75 kg category in the boxing competition on Wednesday.
The victory assures him and India at least a bronze medal.
Earlier in the evening, just as the country celebrated wrestler Sushil Kumar's bronze medal victory in men's 66kg freestyle event, another Indian pugilist, Jitender Kumar, went down fighting to Russia's Georgy Balakshin in the quarter-finals of the 51 kg category.
The Bhiwani pugilist, one of India's best medal hopes at the Games, was ahead in all the four rounds and deservedly clinched a 9-4 verdict.
The Ecuadorean had no answer to the Indian's flurry of punches and trailed 1-4 in the second round.
Vijender, who next meets Cuban Emilio Correa, a Pan American champion, repeatedly scored with left-hand jabs and uppercuts to which Carlos had no answer.
With the score reading 7-2 in Vijender's favour after the penultimate round, the Ecuadorean needed to go all out in the fourth and final round. Though he did narrow the gap, Vijender's evading tactics and good defence clinched him victory.
Vijender won the opening round 2-0, the second round 2-1, the third 3-2 and 2-1.
He made it to the last eight stage after overwhelming Angkhan Chomphuphuang of Thailand 13-3 in a lop-sided pre-quarter-final on Saturday night.
Earlier in the competition, he thoroughly dominated his opening bout against Gambia's Jack Badou, scoring a facile 13-2 win.
