India’s women boxers led the country’s best-ever show at the World Boxing Cup in Astana on Sunday, with Sakshi (54kg), Jaismine (57kg) and Nupur (80+kg) clinching gold medals to cap off a memorable campaign.
Sakshi outclassed USA’s Yosline Perez with a unanimous verdict in the women’s 54kg final, while Jaismine edged past Brazil’s Jucielen Cequeira Romeu 4:1 in the 57kg bout. Nupur rounded off the day with a dominant 5:0 win over Kazakhstan’s Yeldana Talipova in the 80+kg final.
India ended its campaign with 11 medals — three gold, five silver and three bronze — bettering its tally from the first leg in Brazil, where the team won six medals, including one gold.
Sakshi set the tone for India on the final day with her aggressive approach and quick combination punches to seal the first gold. Jaismine, 23, used her reach smartly to keep her opponent at bay in a close contest before landing clean counters in the final round to pull ahead.
Nupur, who lost the opening round to the local favourite Talipova, came back strong to dominate the next two rounds with better footwork and sharper attacks.
Earlier, Meenakshi went down fighting to Kazakhstan’s Nazym Kyzaibay in the 48kg final, losing 2:3.
Jugnoo (men’s 85kg), Pooja Rani (women’s 80kg), Hitesh Gulia (men’s 70kg) and Abhinash Jamwal (men’s 65kg) settled for silver after finishing second in their respective finals. Jugnoo lost 0:5 to Kazakhstan’s Bekzad Nurdauletov, while Pooja went down by the same margin to Australia’s Eseta Flint. Hitesh lost 0:5 to Brazil’s Kaian Oliveira and Jamwal fell short 2:3 against Yuri Falcao.
Sanju (women’s 60kg), Nikhil Dubey (men’s 75kg) and Narender (men’s 90+kg) claimed bronze.
(ANI)