Vijender becomes world number two

Olympic bronze medal winner Vijender Singh on Thursday achieved a career-high second spot in the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) official rankings in which three other Indians made the top-10 of their respective categories.

The Khel Ratna awardee, who also won bronze medals at this year's European Grand Prix event in Czech Republic and the Asian Championships in China, sits behind Olympic silver medallist Emilio Correa Bayeux of Cuba with 1700 points. Vijender (75kg) had lost to Bayeux (2500 points) in the Olympic semi-finals.

Olympic gold medallist James De Gale of England was not rated as he has turned professional.

"All the good things are happening in my life for the past one year. It feels fantastic to be rated so high," Vijender said from Patiala, where he is training.

Among other Indians, Beijing Olympics quarterfinalist Akhil Kumar has been placed ninth in the feather weight (57kg) rankings with 1050 points.

Akhil competed in the bantam weight (54kg) division in Beijing and shifted to feather weight only this year. The Haryana-boxer is yet to compete in any major international tournament since changing his division and will make his feather weight debut at the World Championships next month.

In the 48kg category, world youth champion Thokchom Nanao Singh has been ranked fifth with a tally of 1400 points.

In the 51kg, national champion Suranjoy Singh has been ranked 14th with 800 points, while Beijing Olympics quarterfinalist Jitender Kumar has been ranked 13th in bantam weight with a total 837.5 points.

Jitender competed in Beijing as a fly weight boxer but changed his division this year. He won a bronze in the Asian Championships earlier this year in the bantam weight division.

Olympian and Asian Championships bronze medallist Dinesh Kumar is ranked joint sixth in 81kg category with 1050 points.

The rankings were developed on the basis of the performance of the boxers in various world and continental championships in the past one year.

These included the 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships, Olympic Qualifying tournaments, Beijing Olympics, Youth World Championships, Pan American Championships, European Elite Championships, Asian Elite Championships, African Elite Championships.