Vikas Krishan (69kg) and Pinki Rani (51kg) guided India to six more gold medals as the Indian boxing contingent finished its campaign with 16 medals at the 13th South Asian Games in Kathmandu on Tuesday.
In men’s category, Sparsh Kumar (52kg), Narender (+91kg) were the others who bagged the yellow metal, while Sonia Lather (57kg) and Manju Bamboriya (64kg) also contributed to India’s medal spree. India won a rich haul of 12 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze in boxing.
Veteran Krishan completed his comeback in style with a resounding 5-0 win over Pakistan’s Gul Zaib in 69kg. In the +91kg category, Narender too was equally impressive as he cruised to a 5-0 victory over Nepal’s Ashish Duwadi.
Sparsh Kumar (52kg) was made to work hard for the gold by Pakistan’s Syed Muhammad Asif. After a slow start, the Indian found his rhythm and landed a flurry of punches to emerge a 4-1 winner.
Varinder Singh (60kg) was the only one of the Indians to suffer a defeat on the final day of the competition. Nepal’s Sanil Shahi refused to break down in a gruelling bout that saw both the boxers fighting tooth and nail. Shahi eventually edged the Indian 3-2 to take the gold.
All the women pugilists in action on Tuesday won the gold. Former World Championships silver medallist Sonia (57kg) hardly broke a sweat and easily dominated her final bout against Sri Lanka’s Krismi Ayoma Dulanj Lankapurayalage 5-0 to finish on the top podium.
2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Pinki (51kg) and Manju Bamboriya (64kg) both displayed tremendous fighting spirit and resilience to bag the gold in hard-fought encounters.
While Rani beat Nepal’s Rai Mala 3-2, Bamboriya edged past Nepal’s Punam Rawal by the same scoreline. On Monday, India had captured six golds through Ankit Khatana (75kg), Vinod Tanwar (49kg), Sachin (56kg), Gaurav Chauhan (91kg), Kalaivani Srinivasan (48kg) and Parveen (60kg).
