India’s Amisha, Prachi and Hardik sign off with silver; 9 more boxers to fight for gold on final day

New Delhi: Indian boxers Hardik Panwar (80kg) , Amisha (54kg) and Prachi Tokas (80+kg) bagged silver medals after suffering defeats in their respective finals of the IBA Junior World Boxing Championships in Yerevan, Armenia.

The Asian junior champion Hardik conceded a narrow 2-3 loss against Ashurov Bairamkhan of Russia in a closely fought contest. Both the boxers looked aggressive in the bout, grabbing every opportunity to score points and keeping the spectators on the edge of their seats. However, the Russian did enough to tilt the result in his favour.

Meanwhile, in the girls’ section, Amisha and Prachi suffered identical 0-5 losses in their respective final bouts. While Amisha lost to Ayazhan Sydyk of Kazakhstan, Prachi gave her all against the tough opponent two-time Asian junior champion Sobirakhon Shakhobiddinova from Uzbekistan but fell short.

India have already secured 17 medals, including five bronze, in the on-going prestigious tournament.

Payal (48kg), Nisha (52kg), Vini (57kg), Shrushti (63kg), Akansha (70kg), Megha (80kg), Jatin (54kg), Sahil (75kg) and Hemant (80+kg) are the country’s nine pugilists who will fight for gold medals on the final day of the competition.

Neha (46kg), Nidhi (66kg), Pari (50kg), Kritika (75kg) and Sikandar (48kg) have secured bronze medals earlier after concluding their campaigns in the semi-finals.