India’s six-pack appeal

Bangkok, April 25 

Amit Panghal (52kg) and Kavinder Singh Bisht (56kg) remained on course for their second successive international gold medals this year and India looked good to notch up its best-ever performance in the Asian Boxing Championships.

Panghal and Bisht were the most impressive of the Indian boxers on a day when Shiva Thapa’s (60kg) unprecedented fourth successive semifinal appearance ended in defeat. He got a bronze after a gruelling battle that could have gone either way.

Deepak Singh (49kg) and Ashish Kumar (75kg) joined Panghal and Bisht in the men’s finals, while Pooja Rani (81kg) and Simranjit Kaur (64kg) advanced to Friday’s summit clashes in the women’s draw.

Panghal defeated China’s Hu Jianguan in a split verdict, which was a surprise given that the Indian was clearly the more dominant of the two and dictated the bout with his tremendous pace and aggression. Bisht, on the other hand, gave a lion-hearted show in a bloody battle which left him and his opponent — Mongolian Enkh-Amar Khakhuu — with bandaged right eyes. The draining fight ended 3-2 in the favour of Indian.

Thapa came out all guns blazing against Kazakhstan’s Zakir Safiullin but a loss of momentum in the final round put him on the losing side. Also finishing with a bronze among the men were Ashish (69kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg). While Ashish was beaten 0-5 by Uzbekistan’s Bobo-Usmon Baturov, Satish was forced to give a walkover to Kazakh Kamshybek Kunkabayev owing to an injury sustained in the previous bout.

Deepak advanced to the final without landing a single blow after getting a walkover from Kazakhstan’s Temirtas Zhussupov, who was injured. It was a second successive walkover to the Indian.

Pooja was up against Kazakhstan’s Fariza Sholtay and emerged triumphant in a unanimous decision. Simranjit faced a rather sluggish opponent in Uzbekistan’s Maftunakhon Melieva and controlled the proceedings from start to finish for an easy 5-0 triumph.

Bronze for Sarita, Manisha

Settling for bronze medals among the women were L Sarita Devi (60kg), Manisha Moun (54kg), Nikhat Zareen (51kg) and Sonia Chahal (57kg). Manisha lost to Taiwan’s Huang Hsiao-Wen while Sarita (60kg) went down to China’s Yang Wenlu. Zareen gave it her all in the clash against Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Tam but signed off with a bronze. Sonia lost to local favourite Nilwan Techasuep. — PTI