Golden punch in Belgrade

New Delhi, Sumit Sangwan (91kg) and Nikhat Zareen (51kg) were among the three gold medallists in India’s successful campaign at the 56th Belgrade International Boxing Tournament in Serbia.
Himanshu Sharma (49kg), who defeated Algeria’s Mohammed Touareg 5-0 in his final bout, was the third gold medallist as India ended the tournament with three gold, five silver and five bronze medals.
Continuing his fine comeback from a wrist injury, Sumit defeated Ecuador’s Castillo Torres in a unanimous 5-0 verdict to claim the yellow metal. The 24-year-old later dedicated the triumph to his father, Surender Sangwan. “He has been my rock through everything. I dedicate this medal to my bapu (father). All the hard work I had put in for the Commonwealth Games came in handy here after I missed out on that. My hand feels completely fine now,” Sumit said.
Former junior world champion Nikhat, also returning to action after recovering from a shoulder injury, notched up a 5-0 win over Greece’s Koutsoeorgopoulou Aikaterini to pick up a morale-boosting gold. “I am very satisfied with how I performed in this tournament,” Nikhat said. “My shoulder is a bit stiff right now so it was by no means an easy campaign. The boxers from Russia and Serbia I fought were very muscular and physically it was draining.” Surprisingly, the contingent did not have a single physio travelling with it for the tournament to take care of these injury niggles.
Signing off with silver medals among the women were Jamuna Boro (54kg) and Ralte Lalfakmawii (+81kg). Jamuna lost to local favourite Andjela Brankovic 1-4, while Lalfakmawii went down 2-3 to Turkey’s Demir Sennur.
In the men’s draw, Laldinmawia (52kg), Varinder Singh (56kg) and Pawan Kumar (69kg) had to be content with silver medals. Laldinmawia was beaten 5-0 by South Korea’s Kim Inkyn, while Varinder lost 2-3 to Brazilian Arilson Goncalves. Pawan was defeated in a split verdict, going down 1-4 to Croatia’s Petar Cetinic. Earlier, Narender (+91kg) fetched a bronze in the men’s competition. In the women’s competition, Rajesh Narwal (48kg), Priyanka Thakur (60kg), Rumi Gogoi (75kg) and Nirmala Rawat (81kg) had settled for bronze medals.