Boxing: Poonia settles for silver at CYG 2011

India's hopes of bagging a gold at the 2011 Youth Commonwealth Games were dashed, as Cuban Youth Olympics gold medallist Rahul Poonia (49kg) ended up on the losing side of the Championship battle against Jack Bateson of England, on the Isle of Man, on Monday.

The 16-year-old, who had to be content with a silver medal, was the lone Indian make it to the finals at Games. He registered an easy victory over Nyiko Ndukula of South Africa to set up a summit clash with the English boxer.

Bateson, a quarter-finalist at the European Youth Championship, made an aggressive start, not giving Poonia many chances to score, but the Indian pugilist threw in a few straight punches to open his account.

As the bout progressed, Poonia seemed out of sorts against the feisty offence of his English opponent. He tried hard to gain the advantage but failed to connect. Bateson, though, kept increasing the margin with his body blows and short jabs.

In the end, Poonia lost the yellow metal by a 6:13 defeat on points.

Earlier in the tournament, Youth National champion Surender Singh (75kg) had to settle for a bronze medal after losing in the round of four in the middleweight category.

Singh, also a gold medallist at Cuban Youth Olympics, suffered defeat at the hands of Grant Quigley of Scotland.

India ended the boxing event at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games with one silver medal and one bronze.

India are currently ninth in the medals table with a tally of three gold medals, three silver and three bronze.

Durgesh Kumar won the gold in the 400 metres hurdles, while Navjetdeep Singh claimed gold in the men's shot put.

India's third gold was won by Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, in the women's singles badminton.