India secure 15 medals in Asian Boxing Championships

Sanjeet secures the country's second gold on the final day, while Amit Panghal and Shiva Thapa settle for silver.

Sanjeet (91kg) defeated 5 time Asian Championships medallist and Rio Olympic silver medallist in the final of ASBC Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai on Monday. This was India's second gold at the event, after Pooja Rani clinched the top spot yesterday in the women's 75 kg category.

Amit Panghal lost against Uzbekistan's Zoirov Shakhobidin in the men’s 52kg final at the 2021 Asian Boxing Championships .

The defending champion put up a great fight against the world champion. However, it wasn’t enough as he suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat with 29-28, 28-29, 28-29, 28-29, 30-27 scoreline.

Incidentally the BFI has already contested the decision of round two of the fight, where Zoirov won by a slim margin. However the complaint has officially been turned down by the AIBA.

Shiva Thapa (64kg) too suffered a close defeat by split 2-3 against the Asian Games silver medallist Mongolia’s Baatarsukh Chinzorig. The Olympics-bound boxer is the only second manr in the world to win five medals at the Asian Championships. The 27-year-old has previously won gold in 2013, silver in 2017 and two bronze in 2015 and 2019.

The 19-member Indian contingent has secured an unprecedented 15 medals (two gold, three silver, ten bronze) . This is the country’s best-ever show at the event. India had previously won 13 medals (two gold, three silver and seven bronze) the 2019 Asian Boxing Championships in Bangkok.

Earlier, during a high-voltage 52kg summit clash between top two seeds, both the boxers showed great skills and attacked from the word go. In the second round Panghal took time as he was more accurate, hit timely punches with more power and was sharp in defense as well. However, Shakhobidin fought back well in time and managed to tilt the game in his favour.

Golden show by Indian women

In the women’s section, Pooja Rani (75kg) clinched her second successive gold medal. Seasoned campaigner Mary Kom (51kg), Lalbuatsaihi (64kg) and Anupama (+81kg) grabbed silver medals. Simranjit Kaur, Lovlina Borgohain , Jasmine, Sakshi Chaudhary , Monika and Sweety (81kg) secured bronze. Thus, all the boxers of 10-member Indian women’s team returned with medal at the ongoing championships

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has allocated USD 4,00,000 prize money for this Championships. The gold medallists of men’s and women’s categories are awarded with USD 10,000 while both the silver and bronze medal winners take home USD 5,000 and 2,500 respectively.

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