Asian Boxing: Sanjeet also reached finals after Panghal and Thapa
After the current Asian Championships winner Amit Phanghal of India and former Asian Champion Shiva Thapa, Sanjeet has also made a brilliant performance to make it to the finals of the respective weight categories of the 2021 ASBC Asian Women’s and Men’s Boxing Championships in Dubai. Phanghal has reached the finals of this championship for the second time in a row, while Thapa has been successful in defeating top seed and earning a final ticket for the first time since 2017. Varinder and Vikas Krishna of India lost in the semi-finals. India has so far secured 15 medals in this championship, with at least seven silver.
The current Asian Games champion and top seed Panghal faced the third seed, Sakane Bibosinov of Kazakhstan, in the semi-finals. Panghal won with a 5–0 margin. Panghal also defeated Saken in the semi-finals of the 2019 World Championship.
Panghal will face defending Olympic and world champion Shakhobidin Joirov of Uzbekistan on Monday on Monday. The title clash between the two also took place in the final of 2019.
With this victory, Panghal has secured at least a silver medal for himself. The funny thing is that in the Asian Championship, Panghal has captured medals of all three colors. In 2017, Panghal won a bronze in Tashkent by participating in the light flyweight category. However, in 2019, Bangal won a gold medal in Bangkok with a brilliant performance.
After Panghal, Varinder of India faced Danial Shahbakhsh of Iran in the semi-finals of the 60 kg category. Varinder lost the match 2-3. In this way, he had to be content with the bronze medal.
After that, in the semi-finals of the 64kg category, Siva Thapa, who had captured the fifth medal in the Asian Championship, faced top seed Bakhodur Usmonov of Tajikistan. Thapa shocked the top seed and won the match 4–0 and secured at least a silver medal for himself.
Thapa, who won gold in Amman in 2013 and silver in Tashkent in 2017, has reached the final for the third time, where he will take on Bartasukh Chinjorig of Mongolia, who won the second seed and the silver medal in the 2018 Asian Games. This match will be played on Monday.
Vikas Krishna, who had secured his third medal in the Asian Championship in the fourth match of the day, faced top seed Baaturov Bobo-Usmon of Uzbekistan in the semi-finals of the 69kg category.
During the match, Vikas got a cut on his eye. This incident happened in the first round itself. By that time, two and a half minutes of play had taken place. Based on this, Barutov was declared the winner. Vikas suffered this injury in the previous match, but in today’s match, blood started seeping due to punch on the same wound, after which the medical team did not allow Vikas to play further.
Then in the final match of the day in terms of Indians, second seed Sanjeet beat Tursunov Sanjar of Uzbekistan 5–0 in the semi-finals of 91 kg category.
Earlier, six-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51 kg) on Thursday in the tournament final with three more Indian women boxers – Pooja Rani (75 kg), Anupama (plus 81 kg) and Lalbutsahi (64 kg). logging in.
Defending champion Pooja got a walk-over against Mongolia’s Mukhbat. While in the other Final-4 matches played late on Thursday night, Lalbutsaihi was declared the winner after he left the bout in the second round due to the Indian’s frequent attacks by his opponent, Kuwait’s Noora Alamutari. Anupama (+81 kg) also won against Uzbekistan’s Mokhira Abdullaeva.
Meanwhile, a fairly tragic event occurred at 54 kg. Two-time youth world champion Sakshi Chaudhary, who was initially declared the winner, had to withdraw from the final. Sakshi had to be content with the bronze medal after her rival Dina Jolaman appealed to review the final round fight as the jury upheld the Kazakh boxer’s claim and resulted in her favor.
Simranjit Kaur (60 kg), Jasmine (57 kg) Monica (48 kg), Lavlina Borgohen (69 kg), Sweety (81 kg) are the other women boxers who lost in the semi-finals after struggling in their respective categories and All four of them had to be content with the bronze medal.
India has now secured 15 medals in this prestigious event. This is the best performance of the Indian team so far in this championship. India had won a total of 13 medals from the edition held in Bangkok in 2019, including two gold, four silver and seven bronze medals. India had finished third.
The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has allocated US $ 4,00,000 prize money for this prestigious event in Asia. The gold medalists in the men’s and women’s categories will be awarded USD 10,000, while the silver and bronze medalists will be awarded USD 5,000 and USD 2,500, respectively. The final matches for the women’s and men’s categories will be held on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
In this event, 150 boxers from 17 countries, including strong boxing countries like India, Uzbekistan, Philippines and Kazakhstan are trying to prove their superiority. Initially, more than 27 countries were expected to participate in this tournament. Due to recently imposed travel restrictions, however some countries could not participate in it.
