Ulaanbaatar Cup: Mandeep Jangra Wins Gold

Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), June 24 (ANI): Commonwealth Games silver medalist from 2014, Mandeep Jangra has won the boxing gold as the Indian contingent amassed a total of nine medals - one gold, four silver, and four bronze medals - at the Ulaanbaatar Cup in Mongolia.

Jangra, who faced Mongolia's Byamba-Otgonbaatar in the final, surprised the opponent with his relentless punches and flamboyant approach winning the only gold with a split victory.

The gold-medalist threw each punch with a motive to silence the crowd and succeeded in his approach as the local lad found it tough in the initial round. With some more inputs from his coach for the second round, Otgonbaatar landed a few of his punches on the Indian but Mandeep countered them well.

After rising to stardom through his heroics in the World Series of Boxing, Muhammed Etash Khan (56 kg) clobbered local lad Kharkhuu Enkh-Amar but his efforts went in vain as the Mongolian countered tactfully and gave the home crowd more to cheer about.

Etash, known for his counter-attacking methods combined with his quick jabs and uppercuts, left his guard down and paid the price as his opponent capitalized to land vicious punches on his body and face.

The evening session started off with a closely fought men's light flyweight encounter which saw India's Himanshu Sharma settling for silver after putting up a valiant fight against Iran's Omid Ahmadisafa.

Even though Himanshu boxed best to his ability and was hopeful of a win, the Iranian was superior when it came to landing impactful punches and emerged triumphant through a split verdict.

In the women's 57kg weight category, World Championship silver medalist Sonia Lather came across a stern challenge from local lass Tumurkhuyag Bolortull and had to settle for silver after fighting tooth and nail.

The second finalist in the women's roster, India Open gold medalist Lovlina Boroghain, who had made her way into the summit clash after a dominating win in the last four stages, looked to have a measured approach in comparison to her free-flowing punches from the last round and suffered a loss to Chinese Taipei's Nien Chen Chen.

Yesterday, in the semifinal stage from the women's category, Bina Devi Koujam (48 kg) bagged the bronze while in the men's category much fancied Shiva Thapa (60 kg) also had to settle for bronze along with Vanhlimpuia (75 kg) and Ashish (64 kg). (ANI)

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