Boxam International: Manish Kaushik won gold, five other boxers won silver

Olympic-equaled Indian boxer Manish Kaushik (63 kg) won the gold medal in his first event in a year, while five others signed the silver medal at the 35th Boxam International tournament in Castellan, Spain. In the split division, Manish defeated Nikolai Tertarian of Denmark.

However, Mohammad Hussamuddin (57 kg) and Vikas Krishnan (69 kg) finished with silver medals among men. Husamuddin gave a walkover to Puerto Rico’s Jean Paul Rivera, who was affected by a positive COVID-19 case. The reason for the pull of the Indian is not immediately known.

Vikas Krishna (69 kg), however, lost in a grueling final to Youba Sissokho of Spain, a bout in which the Indian was left with a cut above his right eye.

Among the women, Simranjit Kaur (60 kg), Pooja Rani (75 kg) and Jasmine (57 kg) finished with silver medals among the women.

World bronze medalist Simranjit could not make it to the ring against USA’s Rashida Ellis after her semi-final rival Kiriya Tapia of the US – according to a report by Positive COVID-19, the organizers prevented the Indian from competing despite negative testing Given.

“Due to local government regulations, she could not compete,” Rafael Bergamasco, the high performance director of Indian women’s boxing, told Castellan’s PTI.

On the other hand, Pooja lost 0-5 to another American Melissa Graham. Indian women boxers ended their campaign with three silver and one bronze medals.

Six-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51 kg) finished with a bronze medal after losing in the semi-finals.

Debutant Jasmine (57 kg) also finished with silver after going down from European champion Italy’s Irma Testa.

Pooja, the Asian champion, struggled hard, but did not engage as much as she swiftly attempted against Graham, who dominated in their impressive counter-attacks.

Promoted

The feisty Jasmine also shined him through all of his but Testa’s tactical superiority. The agile Italian’s eye-catching combination of punches and sheer power was too much to handle just for the rookie Indian, whose overall campaign was quite impressive.

Later on Saturday night, Ashish Kumar (75 kg), Sumit Sangwan (81 kg) and Satish Kumar (+ 91 kg) will compete in the men’s category final. Of these, Ashish and Satish are bound for the Tokyo Olympics.