World silver-medallist Amit Panghal (52kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) struck gold in their first competition after a coronavirus-forced break, clai...
World silver-medallist Amit Panghal (52kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) struck gold in their first competition after a coronavirus-forced break, claiming the top honours at the Alexis Vastine International Boxing Tournament in Nantes, France.
In the 75kg category, Asian silver-winner Ashish Kumar also claimed a gold after his opponent, American Joseph Gerome Hiks, gave him a walkover due to injury.
Panghal, an Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medallist, defeated American Rene Abraham 3-0 with a dominating performance on Friday night.
Sanjeet, a former India Open gold-medallist, too put up a clinical show to get past Frenchman Soheb Bouafia in his summit clash and secure a gold.
However, Asian silver-medallist Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) got the silver after going down to local favourite Samuel Kistohurry in a split 2-1 verdict.
India had earlier secured three bronze medals through four-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (63kg), Sumit Sangwan (81kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg). All three of them lost in the semi-final stage.
This was the first international competition that Indian boxers featured in since the Olympic qualifiers in Jordan in March.
In that event, nine Indians – five men and four women – qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, postponed to next year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Indians’ competition calendar as well as training schedule has been severely hampered by...
