Defending champion Amit Panghal (52kg), Shiva Thapa (64kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) will be in contention for gold medals as the Asian Boxing Championships comes to a close in Dubai on Monday.
Three Indian men will feature in gold-medal bouts on the final day. The women’s events came to a close on Sunday with Pooja Rani (75kg) clinching gold medal.
Panghal will be up against 2016 Rio Olympics and world champion Zoirov Shakhobidin of Uzbekistan while Thapa will face Asian Games silver medallist Baatarsukh Chinzorig of Mongolia. After ensuring a fifth successive medal at the event, Thapa defeated top seed and defending champion Bakhodur Usmonov of Tajikistan 4-0 in the semi final.
The 27-year-old had already become the most successful male Indian boxer in the history of the tournament by advancing to the semi-finals of the ongoing edition in Dubai. His first was a gold in 2013, followed by a bronze in 2015, a silver in 2017 and another bronze in 2019.
Second seeded Sanjeet will fight against 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist Vassiliy Levit, who is chasing his fourth gold medal of the Asian Championships.
Men’s finals line-up (approximate timings):
Amit (52kg)- 7:45 PM IST
Shiva Thapa (64kg)- 8:30 PM IST
Sanjeet (91kg)- 10:15 PM ISTEvent will be livestreamed on AIBA’s YouTube channel
India had already assured themselves of a medal in all of the 10 women’s weight divisions but could not match their tally of two gold from 2019.
Overall, the Indian contingent will finish their best-ever show at the Asian Championships by assuring 15 medals and bettered previous highest of 13 medals (2 gold, 4 silver and 7 bronze) achieved during the 2019 edition.
Eight Indian pugilists – Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Jaismine (57kg), Sakshi Chaudhary (64kg), Monika (48kg), Saweety (81kg) among women and Vikas Krishan (69kg) and Varinder Singh (60kg) among men – have secured bronze medals with their semi-final finish.
The International Boxing Association, AIBA, has allocated $400,000 prize money for the on-going Championships. The gold medallists of men’s and women’s categories will be awarded with $10,000 while both the silver and bronze medal winners will take home $5,000 and $2,500 respectively.
(With PTI inputs)
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