Four Indian boxers Akash Gorkha, Vishvanath Suresh, Nikhil and Preet Malik advanced into the Under-22 men’s finals at the 2024 ASBC Asian U-22 & Youth Boxing Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan on Saturday.
Senior national champion Akash extended his dominating run in the 60kg category with a 5-0 win over Ilyasov Sayat of Uzbekistan in the semi-finals.
Reigning youth world champion Vishvanath (48kg) won 5-2 against Baricuatro Bryan of Philippines after the bout was reviewed.
The other two U-22 men’s semi-finalists, Nikhil (57kg) and Preet (67kg) also won their bouts with a similar 5-2 scoreline after a bout review against Mongolia’s Dorjnyambuu Ganbold and Almaz Orozbekov of Kyrgyzstan respectively.
Meanwhile, it was a heartbreak for M Jadumani Singh (51kg), Ajay Kumar (63.5kg), Ankush (71kg), Dhruv Singh (80kg), Jugnoo (86kg) and Yuvraj (92kg) as they ended their campaigns with bronze medals following their losses in the U-22 semis.
Later tonight, nine women boxers, including Olympic-bound Preeti (54kg), will be in action in the U-22 semi-finals.
The U-22 finals will be played on Tuesday.
In the youth women’s semi-finals played on Friday night, reigning junior world champion Nisha (52kg) and Asian youth champion Nikita Chand (60kg) along with five other boxers entered the finals.
Lakshay Rathi (92+kg), Annu (48kg), Yatri Patel (57kg), Parthavi Grewal (66kg), Akansha Phalaswal (70kg) and Nirjhara Bana (+81kg) suffered defeat to end their campaigns with bronze medals in the youth category.
The youth finals will now have 14 Indian pugilists with seven each in both men’s and women’s category fighting for the gold.
The finals for the youth category will be played on Monday.
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