CHENNAI: Manipur's Bishwamitra Chongtham (51kg) was one of the highly-rated boxers from India going into the Asian Youth and Junior Championships in Dubai. Having won the junior title before, he was looking to repeat the performance in the youth section. On Monday, he met his goal by getting the better of Kazakhstan’s Kuziboev Ahmadjon in the final.
Later, Vishal (80kg) emulated Bishwamitra to bag the top prize, beating Akmatov Sanzhar of Kyrgyzstan in the summit clash. Women youth boxers Neha (54kg), Preeti Dahiya (60kg), Khushi (75kg), Sneha Kumari (66kg) also won gold medals. Taking part in the second bout of the day, both Bishwamitra and Kuziboev made a watchful start, maintaining distance.
Bishwamitra was going in and out, charging and landing some good hits and then stepping back again. With some nifty footwork, Bishwamitra did manage to land some good left-handed punches to pick some valuable points. Kuziboev was also on his toes and was making Bishwamitra stay alert with some sharp punches. Bishwamitra, in the end, had just edged his rival, getting the votes of three judges.
Unlike Round 1, Bishwamitra was more positive in his approach early on, landing some good left-handed blows on his opponent. After that he did well to glide around the ring and manage the threat possessed by his opponent. In the process, he also manage to steal some clean hits. Kuziboev was chasing shadows then. Bishwamitra’s dominance was clear as he won the round by unanimous verdict. Just 180 seconds away from gold, Bishwamitra displayed good defensive skills in the final round. The Uzbek boxer, on the other hand, was understandably aggressive. He kept going after the Indian, but the latter was sharp enough to get out of the way.