India women top tourney with five gold medals

New Delhi: Arundhati Choudhary (69kg) and Naorem Babyrojisana Chanu (51kg) won gold as India's women contingent ended the 30th Adriatic Pearl boxing tournament with five gold, three silver and two bronze medals in addition to three male boxers winning bronze.

India's women's contingent thus finished top of the podium at the tournament and took home the trophy.

Babyrosijana beat Sabina Bobokulova of Uzbekistan while Arundhati beat Ukraine's Marina Stoiko in their respective final bouts on Sunday. Meanwhile, Lucky Rana (64kg) lost to Lia Pukkila of Finland to settle for silver.

Earlier, Vinka (60kg) and T. Sanamacha Chanu (75kg) finished atop the podium in the women's category late on Saturday night. Alfiya Pathan (81kg-plus) had won the first gold on Friday, also in the women's section. In an all-Indian final, Sanamacha prevailed over Raj Sahiba to win gold while Vinka defeated Moldova's Kristna Kriper.

An outstanding performance by the Indian boxing team at the 30th Adriatic Pearl Tournament in Budva, Montenegro, is the first step towards our preparation for next month's World Youth Championships in Poland, said the Indian team coach Bhaskar Bhatt on Monday.

The 19-member Indian boxing team, including 10 women, gave a good account of their prowess, winning as many as 12 medals, 10 of them being clinched by women. The women also won all five gold medals while the two medals the men won were bronze medals. The rest of the silver and bronze were won by women. The women's squad, featuring boxers below the age of 18, was also declared the 'Best Team of the Tournament'.

Indian team coach Bhaskar Bhatt had on Saturday attributed the team's success so far to good preparation. "The training was structured according to individual strengths. Since the performance of the boxers is on expected lines, it means they have grasped what has been taught to them, and that they are able to repeat in the actual competition," Bhatt told IANS.

With global competition resuming after more than a year due to the Covid-enforced lockdown, the Indian officials accompanying the team ensured the youngsters got maximum benefit of the six-day long international tour by having extra training sessions apart from the main competition.

"We made efforts to arrange sparring sessions with teams like Finland, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The Indians who had finished their events had an hour sparring session with them daily. This was aimed at gaining as much experience as possible. It was very productive as our boxers got the opportunity to train with players from other countries," Indian team coach Bhaskar Bhatt said.