Indian pugilists settle for a silver, five bronze in Cuba meet

Manpreet Singh (91kg) won the lone silver medal for India, while Nanao Singh (49kg), Suranjoy Singh (52kg), Santosh Harijan (52kg), Kuldeep Singh (75kg) and Paramjeet Samota (91kg) had to be content with a bronze medal each.

Playing in the heavy weight category, Manpreet, a silver medallist at the 2010 Asian Games, made his way into the finals of the tournament after beating compatriot Paramjeet Samota.

Samota, a super heavy weight boxer, chose to fight in the heavy weight category for this event. But the Commonwealth Games gold medallist fell short against the speed and accuracy of Manpreet.

He was trailing by one point after the first round when Manpreet stretched the advantage to five points in the second.

In the third round, Samota, with his hard hitting body blows and hooks tried to make a comeback, but Manpreet held on to emerge triumphant 20:18.

Unfortunately, the 26-year-old Manpreet, failed to compete in the summit clash due to medical problems and had to make do with a silver medal. In the light-fly weight category, Thokchom Nanao Singh was up against Muzaparov of Kazakhstan. The Asian Games silver medallist ended up on the losing side in a high paced bout.

Nanao went down to the Kazak boxer 22:57 after three rounds of intense action.
In stark contrast, Satosh Harijan's purple patch came to an end in what was a very low scoring contest against Ramirez of the Cuba Main team, in the fly weight division.

Both boxers adopted a defensive approach, but in the end, it was the Cuban boxer, who took a crucial three-point lead to win the bout.

Satosh, who had performed exceptionally well to reach the semifinals, had to settle for a bronze with a 4:7 defeat.

Playing in the same weight category, Suranjoy Singh suffered a similar fate as he went down to J Neto of Brazil 7:18.

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist, making his first international appearance since the 2010 Asian Games, exhibited some excellent technique and combinations. In the end though, it was the Brazilian who prevailed.

Kuldeep Singh also lost his semifinal bout to Dominican Castillo Junior. The reigning national champion in the middle weight category was out of sorts and could not break Castillo's guard and ended up losing the bout 10:18.