JAKARTA: Amit Panghal scripted a monumental upset to win the gold medal after beating reigning Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in the 49kg final at the Asian Games in Jakarta. This was India’s first gold in boxing at these Asian Games and also their first-ever in this category across all Asian Games. India has only won nine golds in boxing since the sport was first introduced at the Asian Games in 1954.
This was also only India’s second medal at the Games in the men’s light-flyweight category. Their previous medal in this category had come through Birju Sah, who won bronze in 1994. Panghal, competing in his maiden Games, had previously met Dustamov in the AIBA World Championships quarterfinals last year in Hamburg, where he had lost 5-0.
India’s Lalbiakkima (49kg) stuns Olympic champion Dusmatov
Indian boxer N Lalbiakkima (49kg) picked up a sensational win over Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov to enter the semi-finals of the President’s Cup Tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan. Dusmatov was the runner-up at the World Championships and won the Asian Championships in 2015 and 2017. The 25-year-old Uzbek had lost in the quarterfinals in the last edition of the Asian Games in Incheon in 2014.
With this win, India secured only its second boxing medal at the Games, after Vikas Krishan’s bronze post his withdrawal from the 75kg category – a rather dismal outing from the country that had won five medals, including one gold, in the 2014 edition. Entering the senior boxing circuit in 2016, 22-year-old Panghal won silver at the Commonwealth Games held earlier this year, along with a bronze at the Asian Championships in 2017. Incidentally, the semi-finals loss in the latter had also come against Dusmatov. Agencies. PTI
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