Indian Women Boxers Shine At Nations Cup In Serbia; Win Six Medals

It’s all Dangal with the Indian Women’s boxing team as they went on to finish 3rd in the 6th Nations Cup in the Serbian city of Vrbas this Sunday.

India finished 3rd just after Kazakhstan and Russia in the elite category wherein the tournament also featured School Girl, Junior and Youth Division competition.

The medal tally for India stands at one gold, four silver and four bronze. The solo gold for India goes to Neeraj of Haryana. This exceptional talent acquired the gold by defeating the top-seeded Jaina Shekerbekova of Kazakhstan. Surprisingly this is Neeraj’s first International appearance.

The four silvers were acquired by Sarjubala Devi (48 Kg), Priyanka Chowdhary(60kg), Pooja(69 Kg). They lost to Russia’s Yulia Chumgalakova, Kazakhstan’s Rimma Volosenko, Valentina Khalzova respectively in their bouts.

Seema Poonia appeared directly in her finals as her category only had 3 participants. She brought in India’s 4th silver, losing to Kazakhstan’s Lyazzat Kungenbayeva.

The event also bought a very unfortunate incident to the Indian camp as the lone Bronze medallist Kavita Goyat suffered an injury during her semi-final clash. She had to settle for the third place owing to the injury. She may even require a knee surgery after coming back to India. She was also the bronze medalist during the recent Asian Games.

Speaking to PTI from the Vrbas, Chief Coach of Indian Women’s boxing team, Gurbax Singh Sandhu said, “I am very happy with how the girls have performed in this tournament. We came here with just about 25 days of training and the girls have made us proud”.

This tournament is the maiden project for veteran coach Gurbax Singh, where before he has coached the men’s team for more than two decades. His initial stint with the women’s team brought the country big laurels.

With the World Championship soon to be conducted in Kazakhstan a couple of months from now, this tournament has boosted the morale of the Indian camp and hopefully the World Championship would be a sweet memory for the countrymen.