India won five gold medals at the 2024 Asian U-22 and Youth Boxing Championships as Brijesh Tamta, Aryan Hooda, Sagar Jakhar, Laxmi, and Nisha all won their respective final bouts on Monday in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Tamta gave India its first gold medal of the tournament with a unanimous 5-0 win over Tajikistan’s Muminov Muinkhodzha in the men’s 48kg final.
Aryan (51kg) continued the momentum with an equally dominant 5-0 victory against Kyrgyzstan's Kamilov Zafarbek.
Yashwardhan Singh (63.5kg) had to work hard against Gafurov Ruslan of Tajikistan as both boxers showed great attacking intent but it was the Indian who ultimately clinched the win with a 4-1 split verdict.
In the women’s category, reigning junior world champion Nisha grabbed the gold medal in the 52kg category as she outperformed Kazakhstan’s Otynbay Bagzhan in a 5-0 win.
Later, Laxmi (50kg) won India’s fifth gold medal with a referee stop the contest (RSC) win in the second round of the bout against Enkh Nomundari of Mongolia.
Meanwhile, nine youth boxers, Sagar Jakhar (60kg), Priyanshu (71kg), Rahul Kundu (75kg), Aryan (92kg), Tamanna (54kg), Nikita Chand (60kg), Shrushti Sathe (63kg), Rudrika (75kg) and Khushi Pooniya (81kg) ended campaigns with silver medals after losing in their respective finals.
On Saturday night, the 2024 Paris Olympics-bound Preeti (54kg) had entered the U-22 finals along with five other Indian women.
With Muskan (75kg) and Alfiya Pathan (81kg) already in the finals after receiving byes in their respective semi-finals, a total of eight Indian women and four men will compete in the under-22 finals on Tuesday.
With 22 medals in the youth section and 21 in the under-22 category, the Indian contingent has so far secured 43 medals in the tournament.
