Six Indians advance to the finals of Asian Youth boxing championship in Dubai

New Delhi: Six Indian boxers advanced to the finals of the Asian Youth Championships in Dubai with two of them getting walkovers after their Kazakh opponents were quarantined following a COVID-19 case in the contingent. Of the six Indians who made the summit clashes, two were men and four women. In the women’s draw, Simran Verma (52kg) and Sneha (66kg) progressed after getting walkovers from Kazakh rivals Khava Bolkoyeva and Anar Turynbek respectively. “One of these girls tested positive for COVID-19 and the other had to be also quarantined as she was the infected girl’s room partner. That’s why we got walkovers in these two categories,” India coach Bhaskar Bhatt told PTI. Joining them in the finals were Preeti (57kg) and Preeti Dahiya (60kg). Preeti outclassed Narika Rai of Nepal RSC in the third round to book her final berth. Preeti Dahiya, on the other hand, defeated Uzbekistan’s Rukhshona Uktamova 3-2. Among the men, Vanshaj (64kg) defeated Iran’s Faridi Abolfazl 5-0, while Vishal (80kg) outpunched Kazakhstan’s Dauren Mamyr by a similar margin to move ahead. However, Daksh (67kg) lost to Uzbekistan’s Solijonoz Samandar 4-1. Also ending with bronze medals were Abhimanyu (92kg) and Aman Singh Bisht (+92kg). While Abhimanyu lost to Uzbekistan’s Tokhirov Nusratbek 5-0, Bisht also went down to an Uzbek in Zokirov Jakhongir. India’s assured medal tally stood at over 20 on the day of the draws itself as many countries either skipped or fielded smaller squads due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions. The tournament, which is being held simultaneously for junior and youth boxers (both men and women) offers the gold medallists in the youth category a prize money of USD 6,000 while silver and bronze medallists will claim USD 3,000 and USD 1,500 respectively. The junior champions will be awarded with USD 4,000 for gold and USD 2,000 and 1,000 for silver and bronze medallists respectively.