Asian Boxing Championships | Seven men and six women assured of medals
Seven male and six female Indian boxers have qualified for the semi-finals of the Asian Boxing Championships in Bangkok and are assured of at least bronze medals at the event. The men have equalled their best medal haul in the Championship with the likes of Amit Panghal and Shiva Thapa in top four.
Indian pugilists have continued a dream run at the ongoing Asian Boxing Championships in Bangkok as now there are 13 boxers from the country in the top four of different weight categories in both men and women championships. This is the first time in the history of the tournament that the men’s and the women’s events are being held simultaneously. India is currently ahead of Kazakhstan and China who have 11 and 10 boxers in the semi-finals of both the categories.
Deepak Singh (49kg), Amit Panghal (52kg), Kavinder Singh Bisht (56kg), Shiva Thapa (60kg), Ashish (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) are the Indian male boxers who have made it to the semi-finals of the championships. Out of them, reputed boxers like Panghal, Bisht, Thapa and Satish have a real chance of making it to the summit clash or even getting the gold medal as well.
While among the women, Nikhat Zareen (51kg), Manisha (54kg), Sonia Chahal (57kg), Laishram Sarita Devi (60kg), Simranjit Kaur (64kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) have all qualified for the top four in the Championships in Thailand’s capital city.
“So far we have done exceptionally well but now comes the big test. All these semifinals are being treated as finals,” India’s High Performance Director Santiago Nieva told PTI.
The Indian men had their best tournament in Asia back in 2009 where they bagged a total of seven medals including one gold while the female boxers had clinched 11 medals including seven golds in 2005 to finish as the overall champions.
“It’s good to be cautious when you are faced with a tough opponent but overall it is better if you make a statement from the word go. That’s what we have succeeded in doing consistently here,” CA Kuttappa said.
Deepak will play against Kazakhstan’s Temirtas Zhussupov while Bisht will take on Mongolia’s Enkh-Amar Khakhuu and Ashish fight Iran’s Seyedshahin Mousavi in the 75kg semi-final bout. Female pugilists Manisha, Sarita and Pooja will battle it out against Taiwan’s Huang Hsiao-Wen, China’s Yang Wenlu and Kazakhstan’s Fariza Sholtay respectively.
Thapa will play the silver medal winner from the 2015 edition Zakir Safiullinof Kazakhstan in the semi-final bout. Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Satish will also play a Kazakh boxer Kamshybek Kunkabayev. Nikhat, the former junior world champion will meet Nguyen Thi Tam from Vietnam. Sonia will fight against Thailand’s Nilwan Techasuep while Simranjit will cross swords Uzbekistan’s Maftunakhon Melieva.
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