Olympic and World Championship bronze medallist Vijender Singh has achieved yet another first for Indian boxing by becoming the world's top-ranked pugilist in the middle weight (75kg) category.
The 23-year-old boxer, who won India's maiden World Championships medal in Milan earlier this month, has 2200 points and is ranked higher than the reigning champion Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan. Atoev, to whom Vijender lost in the World Championship semi-finals, is third in the list with 2100 points and Olympic silver medallist Emilio Correa Bayeux of Cuba occupies the second spot in the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) list updated after the Milan event.
IOC has expressed happiness at the latest development and has said that this is a great news right before 2010 Commonwealth Games. IOC spokesperson mentioned that Indian sports need more and more ambassadors, and Vijender's achievement speaks highly of India's long term sports development plan. IOC also highlighted that apart from Boxing other sports such as Badminton, Wrestling, Tennis and even F1 have seen consistent performance from India.
Among the other Indians, former world youth champion Thokchom Nanao Singh has slipped three places to eighth with 1400 points in the light fly weight (48kg) category.
Nanao, a silver medallist in this year's Asian Championships in China, lost in the second round of the World Championships.
Olympian Akhil Kumar, whose World Championships campaign was cut short in the first round itself due to a wrist injury, has gone down a rung to 10th in feather weight (57kg) category with 1050 points.
Fellow Olympian Jitender Kumar (54kg) also lost some ground because of his first-round exit in Milan as he dropped a place to 14th with 838 points.
Suranjoy Singh was 17th in the fly weight (51kg) category rankings. World Championship quarter-finalist Dinesh Kumar held on to his sixth spot with 1550 points in the light weight (81kg) category.
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