Shiva Thapa becomes first Indian Boxer to bag gold medal at President's Cup in Kazakhstan

Shiva Thapa becomes first Indian Boxer to bag gold medal at President's Cup in Kazakhstan

Guwahati: Assam Boxer and Four times Asian medallist Shiva Thapa becomes the first Indian boxer in the history to bag a gold medal at the President's Cup boxing tournament after getting a walkover in the finals in Astana, Kazakhstan on Saturday.

Making his international debut in the newly-introduced Olympic category of 63kg, Thapa was to fight Kazakhstan's Zakir Safiullin in the summit clash but his opponent had to pull out due to injury.

As per media reports, Thapa had lost to Safiullin in the Asian Championship semifinal earlier this year.

On the other hand, India's Parveen signed off with a silver medal in the women's 60 kg category by losing to Rimma Volosenko of the host country.

With this, Indian boxers finished their campaign on a high with one-gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the VII Republic of Kazakhstan President’s Cup 2019 in Nur-Sultan.

Also while speaking to agencies said, “The new weight category has been easy to adapt. I have not faced too much difficulty. Obviously, there are challenges of facing boxers who are coming from 64kg, given their power but nothing is impossible."

It may also be mentioned that Shiva Thapa couldn't make the cut for the September world championships after losing in the trials to Commonwealth Games silver-winner Manish Kaushik.

Thapa had defeated Kyrgyzstan's Argon Kadiribekuulu 4-1 in the last-four stage bout.

Earlier, Sweety Boora (81kg) and Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg) had ended their campaign with bronze medals following semifinal defeats.

This was India’s first-ever gold medal at this tournament since its inception in 2006.

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