Finance
By: Shree1news, 18 DEC 2020
Amit Panghal (52kg) stormed into the final after three other Indian boxers had been assured of medals at the World Cup in Cologne, Germany on Thursday even as a positive COVID-19 case among the many support staff caused some anxiousness in the contingent.
Asian Games champion Panghal defeated Frenchman Billal Bennama, a bronze-medallist from the world championship where the Indian won a silver, in his semifinal bout. The diminutive Haryana-lad prevailed 5-0 in the clash.
Earlier, three Indian women had been also assured of medals after finding themselves in semifinals when draws were unveiled.
Pooja Rani (75kg), Manisha (57kg) and Simranjeet Kaur (60kg) made the last 4 due to the small size of their respective draws.
The team was hit by a positive COVID-19 case in a support staff member. Nonetheless, not one of the travelling boxers returned constructive in a contemporary round of testing executed after the case came to light.
“A physio, Rohit Kashyap, has tested positive for COVID-19 but the boxers are effective. They have been tested again and returned negative. The physio has been isolated and is doing alright,” a source within the Sports Authority of India (SAI) informed PTI.
The contingent was also hit by fitness issues with four-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (63kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) pressured to pull out of the event resulting from minor niggles.
“Just unfortunate, what more one can say,” stated an official close to the team.
The rest of the team will compete as planned within the three-day event after which it’ll return to the nation, completing an over a month long training-cum-competition stint in Europe.
In all, four Indian men and 5 women are in action on the event, which will feature boxers from the host country, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine.
Source: A-N
