Shiva Thapa, Pooja Rani clinch gold at Olympic Test event, Ashish Kumar settles for silver
Shiva Thapa (63kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) clinched gold medals, while Ashish (69kg) settled for silver to wrap up a brilliant campaign for India at the Olympic Test event for boxing on Thursday. The 2020 Summer Olympics is scheduled to be held in Tokyo, Japan from July 24 to August 9.
In the summit clash among the men’s 63kg category, four-time Asian medallist Thapa dominated Kazakhstan's national champion and Asian bronze-winner Sanatali Toltayev, defeating him 5-0 to claim the top honours. The 25-year-old is also the reigning national champion and a former bronze-medallist at the world championships. However, Ashish (69kg) lost his gold medal bout to Japan's Sewon Okazawa and signed off with a silver medal instead.
On the other hand, the former Asian Games bronze-medallist Rani managed to edge past Australia's Caitlin Parker to ensure a gold medal for the Indian women's contingent as well. The 28-year-old from Haryana had claimed a silver medal at the Asian Championships earlier this year in Doha, Qatar.
Earlier, former junior world champion Zareen Nikhat (51kg), Simranjeet Kaur (60kg), and Asian silver-medallist Sumit Sangwan (91kg) and Vahlimpuia (75kg) — in the men's draw — all lost their respective semifinal bouts to end with bronze medals on Wednesday.
