Gritty Thapa settles for silver

Indian boxer goes down fighting to Cubas Aloy in bantam weight

It was Thapa’s second loss to the same opponent in three months as he was beaten be Ramirez in the 54kg final of the World Youth Championships in May in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Indian was in the backfoot early into the bout and he trailed 0-2 after the first round. He recovered a bit in the second round which saw both the pugilists taking two points each which left the Cuban ahead on 4-2.

Once he had taken the lead, the Cuban employed backpaddling and counter attacking tactics.  Thapa tried hard to come back into the bout by going all out but to no avail as the Cuban took one more point in the final round to the Indian’s none to win the bout.
Indian youth team coach G Manoharan said Thapa could not get the better of his opponent’s backpaddling and counter attacking tactics.

“The Cuban was backpaddling and counter attacking and that did not allow Thapa to attack. It was a close bout and my ward gave his all,” Manoharan said.  However, it was a gritty effort from the Indian youngster who at any stage did not seem to get intimidated by his oppoent’s reputation and gave him some tough moments.

With the silver won by Thapa, India’s medal tally swelled to eight — six silver and two bronze.  The other five Indian silver winners are Pooja Dhanda (women’s 60kg freestyle wrestling), Durgesh Kumar Pal (boys 400m Hurdles), H S Prannoy (badminton) and Arjun (discus throw) and Yuki Bhambri (tennis).

Kadian Satyawart (men’s 100kg freestyle wrestling) and Vikas Krishan (60kg boxing) had won a bronze each. Meanwhile, Neha Milind Sapte finished fifth in the women’s 10m Air Rifle final with a score of 495.7 (392+103.7).

In table tennis, India beat New Zealand 2-1 in a second stage B round mixed team tie.
Mallika Bhandarkar beat Wu Julia 11-4 11-9 11-8 before Avik Das lost to Wu Kevin 12-10 7-11 3-11 11-5 811. Bhandarkar and Das, however, sealed the tie by defeating Julia-Kevin pair in the doubles 11-3 3-11 11-4 11-8.