Rohit Chamoli defeated Mongolia's Otgonbayar Tuvshinzaya to hand India its first gold medal at the 2021 ASBC Asian Youth & Junior Boxing Championships in Dubai on Sunday.
Playing in the junior boys' 48kg final, the boxer from Chandigarh continued his impressive form in the prestigious continental event and showed good tactical brilliance. After making a cautious start, Rohit's timely and precise punches gave him an edge over his Mongolian opponent in a close-fought match as the Indian managed to secure a 3-2 win as well as the gold medal.
Later tonight, Gaurav Saini (70kg) and Bharat Joon (+81kg) will fight for gold medals in their respective categories. While, Muskan (46kg), Vishu Rathee (48kg), Tanu (52kg), Aanchal Saini (57kg), Nikita (60kg), Mahi Raghav (63kg), Rudrika (70kg), Pranjal Yadav (75kg), Sanjana (81kg) and Kirti (+81kg) are the country's 10 pugilists who will be competing in the girls' finals.
India has already won six bronze medals in the junior event with Devika Ghorpade (50kg), Aarzoo (54kg), and Supriya Rawat (66kg) finishing in the girls' semi-finals while Ashish (54kg), Anshul (57kg) and Ankush (66kg) claimed bronze in the boys' category.
In the last Asian Junior Championships held in 2019 in Fujairah, UAE, India had finished at the third position with 21 medals (six gold, nine silver, and six bronze)--13 medals in the girls' category (four gold, six silver, and three bronze) while eight medals were claimed in the boys' section (two gold, three silver, and three bronze).
The gold medallists in the junior category will be awarded USD 4,000 while USD 2,000 and 1,000 will be given to the silver and bronze medal winners respectively. The ongoing Championships provided the much-needed competitive tournament to the promising young talents at the Asian level after a gap of almost two years lost due to pandemic.
The event witnessed a thrilling action in the presence of pugilists from strong boxing nations like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan to name a few. It is also the first time that both the age groups--junior and youth--were played together.
India's 15 boxers will fight for gold as the finals of the youth event will take place on Monday.
Nivedita (48kg), Tamanna (50kg), Simran (52kg), Neha (54kg), Preeti (57kg), Preeti Dahiya (60kg), Khushi (63kg), Sneha (66kg), Khushi (75kg), Tanishbir (81kg) will be in action in the women's category while, among men, Vishvanath Suresh (48kg), Bishwamitra Chongtham (51kg), Jaydeep Rawat (71kg), Vanshaj (64kg) and Vishal (80kg) will play their finals.
( With inputs from ANI )
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