In a stellar display, Indian boxers collected a rich haul of 8 medals, including one gold, five silver and two bronze to finish their campaign on a high at the Makran Cup boxing tournament in Chabahar, Iran on Wednesday.
Deepak wins Gold in Light fly category at the Makran Cup in Iran, late on Wednesday night
Three times Youth Nationals winner, Haryana’s Deepak won the only gold for India, beating Jaafar Naseri in the (46-49kg) light fly category summit clash. With a flurry of punches, the reigning senior national champion, Deepak looked on top of his game as he never allowed his opponent to settle in.
However, the young pugilist met with disappointment when he received a cut in the second round and the match had to be stopped midway. Despite the setback, Deepak’s dominant display didn’t go unnoticed and the judges declared the Indian as the winner, based on his superior performance on points.
Next up, Lalitha Prasad, who put up a daunting fight in the semis also made a strong start to his bout. It was an extremely tight contest against his rival Ahmadi Safa Omid in the finals but unfortunately, the Indian succumbed to a narrow 2:3 loss to settle for silver in the 52 kg category.
2018 Commonwealth Games silver medalist Manish Kaushik, who has looked in sublime form in the entire tournament also suffered a similar fate. The current National champion suffered a setback after a closely contested battle, as the judges ruled a 2:3 split decision in his opponent’s favour.
Other boxers who won the silver were army man Duryodhan Singh Negi and Sanjeet. Sanjeet, who ensured a place in the finals with a decisive win over Amiri Pourya in the semis went down fighting 0:5 in the finals while Negi lost in a similar fashion to Sajjad Kezem.
The fifth and the final silver was picked up by Asian Games bronze-medallist Satish Kumar. Satish however, didn’t take the ring after he incurred an injury during his semi-final win against Ramazan Pour and thus had to settle for the second place on the podium.
Rohit Tokas and Manjeet Singh Pangal won the bronze medals in 64kg and 75kg respectively after bowing out in the semi-finals stage.