Harpal Singh Bedi
New Delhi, 21 August; It was a day of mixed fortunes for Indian pugilists as six of them scored easy victories while three fell by the wayside on an opening day at the ASBC Youth & Junior Boxing Championships in Dubai.
In the junior boys’ event, Rohit (48kg), Ankush (66kg) and Gaurav (70kg) chalked out facile victories and confirmed themselves and country medals, securing places in the semi-finals.
Chandigarh’s Rohit outclassed Alhassan Qadous Sriya 5-0 while Ankush also blanked Bader Shehab from Kuwait 5-0. Haryana’s Gaurav too put up a dominating show against another Kuwaiti boxer Yaqoub Saadallah before the Referee Stopping the Contest (RSC) in the second round of the bout.
Ashish (54kg), Anshul (57kg), and Preet Malik (63kg) were the other three junior pugilists to emerge victorious in their respective opening round matches.
On the other hand, Yashwrdhan Singh (60kg), Usman Mohd Sultan (50kg), Naksh Beniwal (75kg), and Rishabh Singh (81kg) suffered defeats in their respective preliminary bouts.
The 2021 World Youth Championships bronze medallist Bishwamitra Chongtham will begin his campaign in the prestigious continental event as six youth Indian boxers will be seen in action on the second day.
Apart from Bishwamitra, Daksh Singh (67kg), Deepak (75kg), Aditya Janghu (86kg) and Abhimanyu Loura (92) will play their opening-round matches while among women’s Preeti (57kg) will kick off her challenge.
The gold medalists in the youth age group will receive prize money of USD 6,000 while silver and bronze medalists will claim USD 3,000 and USD 1,500 respectively.
The junior champions will be awarded USD 4,000 and, USD 2,000 and 1,000 for silver and bronze medalists respectively.
The ongoing Asian Championships will provide the much-needed competitive tournament to the promising young talents at the Asian level after a gap of almost two years lost due to pandemics