Asian Boxing: Gold for Sanjeet; Amit Panghal, Shiva Thapa endure close defeats

Sanjeet Kumar (91kg) fetched the lone gold among Indian men boxers with a stunning triumph over Kazakhstan's Olympic-medallist Vassiliy Levit even as defending champion Amit Panghal (52kg) and Shiva Thapa (64kg) settled for silver medals in the Asian Boxing Championships, in Dubai, on Monday.

Sanjeet triumphed 4-1 over Levit, who was chasing his fourth gold of the tournament and is an Olympic silver-medallist.

With 15 medals in this edition, India surpassed its previous best-ever show at this Championship, achieved in 2019, when the country secured 13 medals in all, including two gold.

This time too, the country finished with two gold medals.

The Army man, who is a former India Open gold-medallist, claimed the first two rounds in an evenly-contested bout before Levit fought back in the final three minutes.

Panghal lost 2-3 to known nemesis Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan in what was a repeat of the 2019 world championship final, which had also ended in Zoirov's favour.

India sought a review of the second round of the bout which Panghal won on a split count but looked to have dominated completely.

"I dedicate this silver medal to my coach Anil Dhanker. I wish he was here with in Dubai," Panghal tweeted referring to his personal coach.

Thapa (64kg) also lost by the same margin to Mongolia's Baatarsukh Chinzorig, the reigning Asian Games silver-medallist. This was Thapa's fifth successive podium finish at the showpiece and second silver.
Both the contests had the Indian boxers doing most things right but not getting the judges' nod.

The Panghal-Zoirov clash lived up to the hype with both the Olympic-bound boxers engaged in a fast exchange of punches from the very first round.

Zoirov claimed the opening round. But in the second round, Panghal raised his game by a notch, evading Zoirov's range with his pace and landing his left straights precisely. Zoirov, on the other hand, struggled to connect.

The two went all out in the third round but it was Panghal who was more impressive with his body shots despite an injured eye.

He even had the judges' verdict in his favour for the round but it was not enough to alter the final score-line.

Thapa was equally impressive against Chinzorig, rallying brilliantly after losing the opening round.

With 15 medals in this edition, India surpassed its previous best-ever show at this Championship, achieved in 2019, when the country secured 13 medals in all, including two gold.

On Monday, Pooja Rani (75kg) was the lone woman boxer to strike gold, while six-time world champion M C Mary Kom (51kg), and tournament debutants Lalbuatsaihi (64kg) and Anupama (81+kg) ended with silver medals after close losses in the women's finals.

Eight other Indians -- Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), and Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), and Jaismine (57kg), Sakshi Chaudhary (64kg), Monika (48kg), Saweety (81kg) and Varinder Singh (60kg) -- secured bronze medals after semifinal losses.

India seeks review of Panghal's loss; jury rejects it

India's protest against defending champion Amit Panghal's 2-3 loss in the 52kg category finals of the Asian Boxing Championships was rejected by the jury.

Panghal lost 2-3 to Uzbekistan's Shakhobidin Zoirov.

"The Boxing Federation of India tweeted that it is contesting the second round being awarded India has contested the R2 decision of the spilt verdict 2-3 and surprise loss of @Boxerpanghal in the finals of ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships in Dubai against reigning World & @Olympics champion S Zoirov," the BFI tweeted.

The federation later updated the tweet to say that the 'protest lodged by Indian Team had not been accepted by the Jury Commission'.

The team manager or the head coach of the losing boxer gets 15 minutes after the decision is announced to submit their protest and complete the paperwork for it in the next 30 minutes.
Decisions with scores 5-0 or 4-1 are not reviewable under this system.

Each team is allowed up to two failed reviews.

"If the Technical Delegate determines, after consulting the Bout Review Jury, that the protest should be allowed to proceed, the bout will be reviewed by the Jury – the Observer, the Referee Evaluator and the Judge Evaluator," the AIBA had said.

In case of a protest claiming that an AIBA technical rule was violated by the referee, the aggrieved team has to specify the breach, the round in which it allegedly took place, and how it affected the final result.

The jury's decision must be unanimous and will be final.