Gold each for Mary, Vikas, Gaurav; India ends boxing campaign with 9 medals (Event Roundup)

M.C. Mary Kom (48kg) Vikas Krishan (75kg), Gaurav Solanki (52kg) claimed the gold medals, while Satish Kumar (91kg), Amit Panghal (49kg) and Manish Kaushik (60kg) settled for silvers on Saturday as India ended the boxing competition at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) with its highest-ever haul of nine medals.

Mary, a five-time world champion, defeated Kristina O'Hara of Northern Ireland by a unanimous 5:0 verdict to take the title in probably her final CWG campaign. Olympic 2012 bronze medallist Mary got 30-27, 30-27, 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 points at the end of all three rounds from each of the five judges.

Vikas defeated Dieudonne Wilfried Seyi Ntsengue of Cameroon by a 5:0 unanimous verdict in a close contest which saw both the boxers claiming to have won the bout before the referee's verdict. It was Vikas' first medal at the CWG.

Each of the five judges awarded 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27 and 29-28 points in favour of Vikas at the end of all three rounds.

Gaurav won the gold medal in the men's flyweight (52 kilogram) category as he won a tough, fast paced, tactical battle by a split 4:1 verdict against the impressive Brendan Irvine of Northern Ireland in the final.

Meanwhile, India's Manish had to be content with silver in the men's lightweight (60kg) division. Kaushik lost 2:3 to Harry Garside of Australia in a hard-fought final.

Amit finished with the silver medal in the men's light flyweight (49 kilogram) category after losing 1:3 to England's Galai Yafai in the final.

Satish lost the final of the 91kg category, losing 0-5 by unanimous verdict to England's Frazer Clarke, who got 30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 29-28 from each of the five judges as totals of the three rounds.

This is the first time India got a silver medal in the super heavyweight category in the CWG.

This was Satish's first CWG medal. He has a bronze each from the 2014 Asian Games and the 2015 Asian Championships.

The final proved to be immensely close bout, with both Satish and Clarke looking to match each other in every aspects.

The fact that all of the judges gave 10-9 in favour of Clarke at the end of each rounds underlines the tightly fought bout.

Clarke prevailed as his wider reach helped get slightly the better of 28-year-old Satish. Even though Satish maintained a good physical distance in order to find spaces for going on the attack, Clarke's reach helped him in controlling the Indian.

The Englishman was slightly more accurate in his attacking shots, with Satish especially losing out when the two hung at each other's body.

Apart from these six boxers, three others, Muhammed Hussamuddin, Naman Tanwar and Manoj Kumar claimed bronze medals on Friday.

--IANS

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