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 India's King of the Ring, Vijender Kumar went head-to-head against boxing pedigree in the form of Cuban middleweight Emilio Correa Bayeaux Jr. in the semi-finals of the 75-kg division today. With both boxers already guaranteed a medal, Emilio was hoping to emulate his father who won Gold in the 1972 Munich Games in the Welterweight class. The drama started unfolding the night before the fight as rumours were flying wild in the Olympic village of Correa withdrawing from the fight due to a suspected injured right hand. However, these rumours were just that as he strode majestically towards the ring looking as sharp as ever.

Both boxers started the match slowly with not even a pretense of a punch landed in the opening 30 seconds. Suddenl y Emilio, by far the more decorated of the two, exploded and landed two swift scoring punches. That was kind of it for the first round as both boxers went back into their shells in what was a very cagey opening round in which Vijender barely threw a punch in anger.

The second round was a lot more competitive as Vijender tried valiantly to recover lost ground. Emilio again started this round better, landing the early punches, but Vijender gave his fans some hope as he came back strongly to win it 3:2 and reduce Emilio's lead to just 1 point.

However the third round was all Emilio as he landed three unanswered punches to win handsomely 3:0 and take his advantage to 4 points, an almost unassailable lead. Vijender did manage to win the fourth and final round 2:1, but this was not enough as he lost a rather surprisingly one-sided encounter 8:5.

Though Vijender may be a tad disappointed with just a bronze, the Indian contingent will perhaps be most delighted with what seems to be the beginning of the Golden Age of Indian boxing and one can hope for a handful of medals come the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Vijender's exit from boxing almost wraps-up India's participation in the games, with just the 4*400 meters relay team left to compete in the heats later in the day. In what has been India's most successful games ever, one hopes that the fever for sports other than cricket is kept alive by the sporting authorities, especially with the Commonwealth Youth Games kicking-off in Pune in October 2008.

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Addendum: The 4*400 meters Women's relay team finished 7th in their heat and failed to qualify for the finals, officially calling an end to India's Olympic campaign.