It was a golden climax as Sanjeet Singh and Mary Kom led the host to eight gold medals in the Spicejet India Open international boxing championship. It was a fine success rate for India to win eight out of the 18 finals, with three gold medals emerging out of all-India finals. The host collected 40 medals to sweep $41,000 of the $100,000 at stake, with gold medallists getting $2,500, silver $1,000 and bronze $500.
While Olympic bronze medallist and five-time World Champion Mary Kom’s gold looked a foregone conclusion, as she has consistently tackled the Filipino Josie Gabuco over the years, Sarita Devi was unlucky to lose 3-2 to Mira Marjut Potkonan of Finland, after a robust performance.
After the Uzbeks and Cuban had accounted for the first three golds of the day, it was Sanjeet Singh who broke the shackles for the host with a 3-2 victory over Sanjar Tursunov of Uzbekistan, with his left consistently landing on target from start to finish, in the heavyweight class.
Pwilao Basumatary was equally impressive in taming Sudaporn Seesondee of Thailand in a nerve-wracking women’s 64 kg bout. There was some drama as Lovlina Borgohain was quickly reinstated as the winner by the announcer after she had wrongly declared Pooja as the champion in women’s 69 kg.
Pinki Rani came up with an inspired performance to out-punch Ochirabat Jargalan of Mongolia for the 51 kg gold. After Manisha and Amit had scored victories over compatriots to increase the gold haul for the host, it was announced that Manish Kaushik had got a walkover from Mongolian Battumur Misheelt in the 60 kg category.
The results (finals):
Men: 49 kg: Amit bt Shyam Kumar Kakara 5-0; 52 kg: Khudoynazar Fayzov (Uzb) bt Anwar Shaik Salman 4-1; 56 kg: Aboulkhay Sharakhmatov (Uzb) bt Enkh Amar Kharkku (Mgl) 5-0; 60 kg: Manish Kaushik w/o Battmur Misheelt (Mgl); 64 kg: Jorge Moiran Vinent (Cub) bt Ikbolion Kholdarov (Uzb) 4-1; 69 kg: Bobo-Usmon Baturov (Uzb) bt Dinesh Dagar 5-0.
75 kg: Israil Madrimov (Uzb) bt Osiey Iglesias Estrada (Cub) 3-2; 81 kg: Osvary David Gutierez (Cub) bt Devanshu Jaiswal 4-1; 91 kg: Sanjeet Singh bt Sanjar Tursunov (Uzb) 3-2; +91 kg: Bakhodir Jalolov (Uzb) bt Satish Kumar 4-1.
Women: 48 kg: Mary Kom bt Josie Gabuco (Phi) 4-1; 51 kg: Pinki Rani bt Ochirbat Jargalan (Mgl) 4-1; 54 kg: Manisha bt Meena Kumari 5-0; 57 kg: Nesthy Petecio (Phi) bt Sonia 5-0; 60 kg: Mira Marjut Poykonan (Fin) bt Sarita Devi 3-2.
64 kg: Pwilao Basumatary bt Sudaporn Seesondee (Tha) 3-2; 69 kg: Lovlina Borgohain bt Pooja 4-1; 75 kg: Essiane Clotilde (Cmr) bt Saweety Boora 5-0.
