ASBC U-22 and Youth Boxing: Four Indian boxers move to final

Four Indian boxers Akash Gorkha, Vishvanath Suresh, Nikhil, and Preet Malik advanced into the U-22 men’s finals at the ASBC Asian U-22 & Youth Boxing Championships 2024 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 the 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.

Overall, Indian boxers have secured 43 medals in the prestigious tournament, which has been witnessing high-voltage action with the presence of 390-plus boxers from more than 24 countries, including strong boxing nations such as China, India, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan fighting for the medals across 25 weight categories.