Harpal Singh Bedi
Rohit Chamoli and Bharat Joon clinched a gold each while the third Indian in the fray Gaurav Saini settled for a silver at the ASBC Asian Youth & Junior Boxing Championships in Dubai on Sunday.
In the Junior 48kg final, Rohit overcame Mongolia’s Otgonbayar Tuvshinzaya in a tough bout to win the first gold medal for the country at the championships.
The boxer from Chandigarh continued his impressive form and showed good tactical brilliance. Rohit’s timely and precise punches gave him an edge over his Mongolian opponent in a close-fought match as the Indian managed to secure a 3-2 win
Bharat Joon (+81kg) added one more gold to India’s tally as he outclassed Kazakhstan’s Yerdos Sharipbek and secured a win by a unanimous margin.
However, Gaurav Saini suffered a 5-0 defeat against his Uzbek opponent Boltaev Shavkatjon (UZB) in the 70kg final and ended with a silver medal.
India boys finished their campaign in the junior category with two gold, one silver, and three bronze medals. Earlier, Ashish (54kg), Anshul (57kg), and Ankush (66kg) claimed bronze with their semi-finals finish.
10 Indian boxers Muskan (46kg), Vishu Rathee (48kg), Tanu (52kg), Aanchal Saini (57kg), Nikita (60kg), Mahi Raghav (63kg), Rudrika (70kg), Pranjal Yadav (75kg), Sanjana (81kg) and Kirti (+81kg) will fight for gold in the girls’ finals.
India has won six bronze medals in the junior event with Devika Ghorpade (50kg), Aarzoo (54kg), and Supriya Rawat (66kg) finishing in the girls’ semi-finals.
India’s 15 boxers will fight for gold as the finals of the youth event will take place on Monday. Nivedita (48kg), Tamanna (50kg), Simran (52kg), Neha (54kg), Preeti (57kg), Preeti Dahiya (60kg), Khushi (63kg), Sneha (66kg), Khushi (75kg), Tanishbir (81kg) will be in action in the women’s category while, among men, Vishvanath Suresh (48kg), Bishwamitra Chongtham (51kg), Jaydeep Rawat (71kg), Vanshaj (64kg) and Vishal (80kg) will play their finals.
The gold medallists in the junior category will be awarded USD 4,000 while USD 2,000 and 1,000 will be given to the silver and bronze medal winners respectively.
The Championships provided 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.
In the last Asian Junior Championships held in 2019 in Fujairah, UAE, India had finished at the third position with 21 medals (six gold, nine silver, and six bronze)—13 medals in the girls’ category (four gold, six silver, and three bronze) while eight medals were claimed in the boys’ section (two gold, three silver, and three bronze).