Sumit, Nikhat land golds in Belgrade

New Delhi: The fit-again duo of Sumit Sangwan (91kg) and Nikhat Zareen (51kg) were among the three gold medallists in India’s stupendous campaign at the 56th Belgrade International Boxing Tournament in Serbia.

Himanshu Sharma (49kg), who defeated Algeria’s Mohammed Touareg 5-0 in his final bout, was the third top spot finisher on Saturday night as India ended the tournament with three gold, five silver and five bronze medals.

Continuing his fine comeback from a wrist injury, Sumit, an Asian silver medallist, defeated Ecuador’s Castillo Torres in a unanimous 5-0 verdict to claim the yellow metal.

Former junior world champion Nikhat, also returning to action after recovering from a shoulder injury, notched up a 5-0 win over Greece’s Koutsoe-orgopoulou Aikaterini to pick up a gold.

“I am very satisfied with how I performed in this tournament. My shoulder is a bit stiff right now so it was by no means an easy campaign. The boxers from Russia and Serbia I fought were very muscular and physically it was draining,” Nikhat said.

Surprisingly, the contingent travelled without a physiotherapist to take care of these niggles.

Signing off with silver medals among women were Jamuna Boro (54kg) and Ralte Lalfakmawii (+81kg). While Jamuna lost to local favourite Andjela Brankovic 1-4, Lalfakmawii went down 2-3 to Turkey’s Demir Sennur.

In the men’s draw, Laldinmawia (52kg), Varinder Singh (56kg) and Pawan Kumar (69kg) had to be content with silver medals.

Laldinmawia was beaten 0-5 by Korea’s Kim Inkyn, while Varinder lost 2-3 to Brazil’s Arilson Goncalves.

Pawan was also defeated in a split verdict, going down 1-4 to Croatia’s Petar Cetinic.