Amman, July 9: Young Indian boxer Olympian Shiva Thapa (56kg) bagged the gold beating local hope Obada Alkabeh in the final of the ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championship here Monday.
But there was disappointment for Devendro Singh (49kg) and Mandeep Jangra (69kg) who came agonisingly close to claiming the gold but had to settle for silver.
In the title bout, the 19-year-old Thapa did not just have to contend with Alkabeh, but also fierce home support for the local lad. Thapa made a strong start, landing some cracking hooks and continued to be aggressive trying to put the Jordanian boxer on the back foot.
In the second round, Alkabeh replied with some aggressive combinations of his own, but Thapa was relentless and gained the advantage with his precise counter-attacks. In the end, he went on to bag the gold medal with a hard-fought victory on a split decision from the judges.
"This is a very rewarding win for me. I have been training very hard to make sure I perform to best of my ability and I am very happy to have won the Asian Champion title," said Thapa.
National coach G.S. Sandhu was all praise for the way Thapa fought.
“Shiva is a very perceptive boxers and has to ability to quickly adapt his game according to that of his opponent. He also possesses some great fire power which we saw in abundance today. I am very pleased to see him win the continental title, which will also be a great boost for his confidence and in his preparations for the World Championships," said Sandhu.
Meanwhile, 21-year-old Devendro put up sterling performance against some power hitting from Temertas Zhussupov of Kazakhstan.
In the end though, he had to be content with a silver medal finish from the championship after losing on a split decision.
National Games bronze medallist Jangra (69kg) also had to make do with a silver medal after losing out to 2010 Asian Games gold medallist Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan in the finals of the welterweight category.
India finished the tournament with a haul of four medals (a gold, two silver and a bronze).
Earlier in the championship, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Manoj Kumar (64kg) lost out to London Olympics bronze medallist Uranchimegiin Monkh-Erdene of Mongolia in the semi-finals of the light welterweight division and had to be content with a bronze medal.
