Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
Amit Panghal failed to defend his title as while Shiv Thapa lost his bid to regain the gold as the two Indians suffered identical 2-3 defeats in hard fought finals at the 2021 ASBC Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai on Monday.
Amit went down to Olympics champion Zoirov Shakhobidin in a bitterly contested 52kg final .The Indian fought hard against the world champion but could breach Uzbek’s defence at crucial moments and suffered 2-3 defeat with 29-28, 28-29, 28-29, 28-29, 30-27 score line.
Amit could not defend the title he had won in 2019. This is his overall third and first silver medal in Asian Championship.
Shiva Thapa (64kg) also lost his bout by split 2-3 verdict against the Asian Games silver medallist Mongolia’s Baatarsukh Chinzorig.
Thapa the world championships bronze medallist is the only second male boxer in the world to win five medals at the Asian Championships.
The 27-year-old Assam boxer 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 and ensured the country’s best-ever show surpassing the previous best of 13 medals (2 gold, 4 silver and 7 bronze) achieved during the 2019 edition in Bangkok.
Last night in the women’s section, Pooja Rani (75kg) clinched her second successive gold medal while seasoned campaigner Mary Kom (51kg), Lalbuatsaihi (64kg) and Anupama (+81kg) grabbed silver medals. Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Jaismine (57kg), Sakshi Chaudhary (54kg), Monika (48kg) and Saweety (81kg) secured bronze as all the boxers of 10-member Indian women’s team returned with medals.
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.