Ritika clinches heavyweight gold

Bangkok: Ritika bagged gold in the women’s 80+kg category as India finished a creditable overall fourth in the Under-22 category of the Asian Boxing Championships here on Monday.

The Indian U-22 contingent concluded their campaign with a total of 13 medals, while the U19 group returned home with a total of 14 medals, including three gold, seven silver and four bronze. The effort helped the U-19 side to end up at overall second in the tournament.

However, the day’s sole gold came through Ritika in the women’s 80+kg final, where she kept her composure under pressure to beat Kazakhstan’s Assel Toktassyn.

Facing a strong boxer, Ritika mixed caution with aggression to land some telling blows, bagging India’s fourth gold in the event.

In the morning session, Yatri Patel settled for a silver after losing to Khumorabonu Mamajonova of Uzbekistan in women’s 57kg, while Priya’s spirited fight against Yu Tian of China in the 60kg final ended in a narrow 2:3 loss.

Later in the day, Neeraj went down against Shavkatjon Boltaev of Uzbekistan in the men’s 75kg final.

Later, Ishan Kataria lost to Khalimjon Mamasoliev of Uzbekistan in the 90+kg gold medal clash, as both the Indian boxers secured silver.

India’s overall medal haul across both age groups and genders underlined the strength and depth of its youth boxing programme. Earlier this year, the U-15 and U-17 squads had combined for 43 medals at the Asian Championships, with the U-15 contingent delivering the highest number of golds in the competition - 11 in total - led by the girls’ team, who swept 10 of the 15 available gold medals and won every final they contested on the penultimate day.