Neeraj wins gold as Indian women pugilists finish 3rd in medals tally at 6th Nations Cup International Boxing tournament in Serbia

Indian women boxers packed a punch at the 6th Nation’s Cup international boxing tournament in Serbia as they finished 3rd in medals tally. Further, Haryana girl and reigning national champion Neeraj (51Kg) displayed awesome potential and defeated Kazakhsta’s Jaina Shekerbekova to win gold for the country.

However, former World Championships silver-medallist Sarjubala Devi (48kg), Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg), Pooja (69kg) and Seema Poonia (+81kg) won silver medals after losing their respective summit clashes.

“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 done us proud,” said chief coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu, on his maiden assignment as the national women’s coach.

Seema, who made it to the final without fighting a single bout as her category featured only three boxers, also went down to a Kazakh in Lyazzat Kungenbayeva.

India thus finished the event with a gold, four silver and a bronze medal.The bronze medal came through former Asian Games bronze-medallist Kavita Goyat, who lost her semifinal contest owing to a knee injury, which might require surgery on return to India.

This was the Indian eves’ first tournament under Sandhu, who served as the country’s chief men’s coach for over two decades. India were behind Kazakhstan and Russia in the elite category of the tournament, which also featured schoolgirls, junior and youth division competition.

With PTI inputs