Indian boxers bag two more gold medals as impressive show continues

Living up to the favourite’s tag, Vinka (60kg) and T Sanamacha Chanu (75kg) clinched two more gold medals for India as they continued their impressive run at the 30th Adriatic Pearl Tournament in Budva, Montenegro. Indians won an additional 2 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze on the penultimate day of the tournament. Earlier Alfiya Pathan (+81kg) secured the country’s first gold in the on-going tournament.

Rohatak’s Vinka blanked her opponent Kristina Kriper from Moldova 5-0 in the final, while in an all-Indian gold medal clash of 75kg category, Manipuri girl Sanamacha, who was touted as the strong contender for the gold, showed aggressive intent from the word go and did not allow her opponent and teammate Raj Sahiba any chance to fightback before securing an easy 5-0 win. With loss to T Sanamacha in the summit clash, Raj Sahiba had to settle for the silver medal.

Another silver for the day, in the women’s category, came when Gitika went down fighting 1-4 against Uzbekistan’s Farzona Fozilova in the 45-48kg final. In the 57kg women’s semi-final, Preeti went down 1-4 against Montenegro’s Bojana Gojkovic to bag bronze.

Meanwhile, Priyanshu Dabas (49kg) and Jugnoo claimed bronze medals each as Indian men’s team ended their campaign with two medals. Both the boxers lost their respective semi-finals bout. While Priyanshu suffered a narrow 3-2 loss in the hard-fought match against Ishjonov Ibrokhim of Uzbekistan, Jugnoo lost to Ukraine’s Vasyl Tkachuk 5-0 in the +91kg. In the 64kg women’s last-four match, Lucky Rana notched up a 3-0 win against Uzbekistan’s Gulshoda Istamova.

Lucky will play against Finland’s Lia Pukkila in the final today. Apart from Lucky, two more Indian women boxers will be in contention for gold medals on the final day as Babyrojisana Chanu (51kg) and Arundhati Choudhary (69kg) will play their final matches late in the night today.

Chanu will face a challenge from Uzbekistan boxer Sabina Bobokulova while Arundhati will fight against Maryana Stoiko of Ukraine in the summit clash.