India’s Gaurav Saini marches into the 71kg finals in the Asian Junior Championships

Indian boxer, Gaurav Saini progressed towards the final round of the 71kg category at the Asian Junior Championship. Other Indian boxers like Ashis(54kg), Anshul(57kg) and Bharat Joon(81+kg) also reached the last four stage on Sunday night in Dubai.

Indian boxer, Gaurav Saini progressed towards the final round of the 71kg category at the Asian Junior Championship. Other Indian boxers like Ashis (54kg), Anshul (57kg) and Bharat Joon (81+kg) also reached the last four stages on Sunday night in Dubai.

Saini beat Kyrgyzstan’s Zakirov Mukhammadaziz 4-1 to enter the finals of the tournament. Ashis was absolutely dominant in his fight against Tajikistan’s boxer Rahmanov Jafar in the 54 kg category, with the final score being 5-0. Anshul, too, was dominant as his quarter-final match against UAE’s representative, Mansoor Khaled ended in the first round itself, as the bout was stopped by the referee.

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Bharat Joon was less comfortable in his win against Uzbeki boxer, Kenesbaev Aynazar in his quarterfinal match, as he won 3-2, in the 81+kg category. Krish Pal(46kg) and Preet Malik(63kg) were unfortunately knocked out from the tournament. Pal was no match for Uzbekistan’s Bakhtiyor Yakhshiboev, as the latter boxer dominated him and it led to a second-round referee stoppage.

Malik lost to Kyrgyzstan’s Eldar Esembae in a fairly competitive match, where the final result was 3-2 in favour of the latter boxer. India was assured of at least 20 medals, as several countries couldn’t attend due to pandemic travel restrictions still in place, which lead to the small size of the draws.

The prize for winning the Youth Championships would be 6,000 USD, while the money for winning the Junior Championship is 4,000 USD. Silver and Bronze medal winners in the first category will get USD 3,000 and USD 1,500 respectively. In the second category, the same medal winners will get USD 2,000 and USD 1,000 respectively.