Adriatic Pearl Tournament: Indian women boxers claim five gold medals for a top finish

New Delhi: Babyrojisana Chanu (51kg) and Arundhati Choudhary (69kg) fetched two more gold medals as Indian women boxers ended with five overall for a top finish in the 30th Adriatic Pearl tournament in Budva, Montenegro. Lucky Rana (64kg) secured a silver as Indian women emerged as the top team with 10 medals (five gold, three silver and two bronze). Uzbekistan (2 gold) and Czech Republic (1 gold) ended at second and third position respectively. Three-time Khelo India gold-medallist Arundhati pulled off a dominating 5-0 victory over Ukraine’s Maryana Stoiko on Sunday. Chanu, who trains at MC Mary Kom’s Imphal-based academy, got the better of Asian junior champion Sabina Bobokulova of Uzbekistan in a close fight which ended 3-2 in favour of the Indian. However, Lucky suffered a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Finnish boxer Lia Pukkila to claim a silver medal. Alfiya Pathan (+81kg), Vinka (60kg) and T Sanamacha Chanu (75kg) are the other Indian women boxers who secured gold medals in their respective categories earlier in this tournament. For her magnificent show, Vinka received the Best Woman Boxer of the Tournament award. With two medals in the men’s category, the 19-member Indian team concluded its campaign with an overall second position (12 medals). Uzbekistan and Ukraine claimed first and third position respectively in the overall standings.