Sunday, August 7, 2022

Boxing starts the gold rush on Sunday at Commonwealth Games

Birmingham, Aug 7: India won both the boxing finals they featured in the morning session of the penultimate day of competition at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Nitu Ghanghas (women’s 48 kg) and the hugely talented Amit Panghal (48-51 kg) won the gold in their respective categories with fair amount of ease.

Commonwealth Games: India schedule, Results, Medals tally

Nitu Ghanghas, who competed in the same category that was dominated by the legendary MC Mary Kom, ensured India had a gold in the category for the second CWG in succession.

An absolutely delighted, Nitu said, “I can hardly breathe, I am so happy. My parents have been my inspiration and my gold medal is for them. I celebrated my win in the ring but now I will have some good times with my parents and family. "I have made my parents proud and that means everything to me.” Nitu, who hails from Dhanana village in Bhiwani, added, “This will make my village so happy and proud. I have won the gold medal against a really good opponent. She was strong and I have to compliment her: she was a very worthy opponent. She told me afterwards that I deserved to win the gold medal, and that means a lot to me." Nitu took to boxing when she was 12 with her father supporting her. He even took three years leave from his government job without pay so that he could focus on his daughter’s training. He would take her every day to Bhiwani Boxing Club for training. He was convinced she was champion material and she did not disappoint as she twice won the Youth World championships. She also won a Gold at the Asian Youth Championships. She added, "I hope that I can inspire other women to follow my path. I know this will mean so much to India and to boxing in my country.” Panghal, who fought well before losing to the 2018 final to England’s Galai Yafai, who hails from Birmingham and was one of the ambassadors for the sport ahead of these Games. Galai, who went on to win the Tokyo Olympic Games gold has since been focussing on professional boxing.

After making up for the 2018 loss in the final, an elated Amit said, “This has avenged my loss in Australia in the final. I knew it would be very testing because I was fighting an Englishman in England but the judges were very fair and very accurate.”

He confessed, “I was devastated when I lost four years ago so this makes me very happy. I got my tactics just right in the final."

On his fight today, he added, "He was taller than me and I had to be more aggressive and get inside his arms. That worked. My coaches did a great job because we worked out how to win and I did it in the ring. I did enough to win the first two rounds and I held it in the last. I thought he probably won the last round but I was too far ahead by then. He was a great opponent.”

Nitu takes over category once dominated by Mary Kom

Since women’s boxing was introduced in 2014, this is the second time India has won gold – Mary Kom won the gold in 2018, while in 2014 Pinki Rani earned a bronze as Nicola Adams won gold.

Nitu clinched a unanimous 5-0 win over Demie-Jade Resztan of England. She kept up her attacking tempo giving little room for the local boxer to fight back.

Ghanghas was leading 4-1 after the first round. She dominated the second round too, winning a 4-1 verdict in her favour.

Earlier in the week, in the semi-finals Nitu outclassed Canada's Priyanka Dhillon, who is of Indian origin like many athletes in their contingent. Nitu won ahead of time as the Referee Stopped the Contest (RSC). At times, she was almost inviting her opponent by opening her guard to lure her and then let loose a barrage of punches.

Nitu, 21, a two-time Youth world champion, was making her CWG debut.

Panghal adds CWG gold to Asian Games gold

Four years ago, Amit Panghal fought extremely well against England’s Yafai, who later became an Olympic champion. But Panghal had won a lot of hearts in Gold Coast and he himself took heart from that fight. Later in the year he made up with a gold medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta.

Since then his growth has been excellent and he won a silver at the World Championship in Yekaterinberg, losing to Shakhhobidin Zoirov, the 2016 Olympic gold medallist.

A few months from now, Panghal will be at the World Championship where he hopes to fill that gap and add a World Championship gold.

Army man Panghal, who hails from Rohtak, Haryana, was encouraged to take up boxing by his elder brother, Ajay, who himself was a boxer.

After losing to an English boxer in Gold Coast, Panghal took it out on another Englishman, Kieran MacDonald, who he beat 5-0 in an unanimous decision. That was India’s second boxing gold.

Panghal won the first round unanimously though in the second round, one judge ruled in favour of MacDonald. He left no doubt after that.

Earlier, Panghal had advanced to his second consecutive Commonwealth Games boxing final by beating Patrick Chinyemba of Zambia 5-0 in a unanimous decision. Panghal initially trailed, but soon rallied back to take the round. He then dominated the rest of the match.

Panghal had beat Namri Berri of Vanuatu in his Round of 16 bout and had a similar unanimous 5-0 decision in his quarterfinal against Scotland's Lennon Mulligan.

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