Vikas Krishan (75kg) beat Cameroon’s Dieudonne Wilfried Ntsengue to claim the third gold for India. Earlier, M C Mary Kom made history as she became the first Indian woman boxer to claim a Commonwealth Games gold. Debutant Gaurav Solanki (52kg) also won the coveted gold.
Settling for silver medals were Amit Panghal (49kg) and Manish Kaushik (60kg) after losing closely-contested bouts here.
This is India’s best ever haul at the mega-event here today. India will be going back with eight boxing medals from the current edition, one more than their previous best at the 2010 Delhi Games.
The technically superior Vikas Krishan stuck to his usual tactic of taking slow control of the proceedings, trading with caution first up before letting it rip to take the opponent by surprise. He plans to turn professional by the end of this year and the gold here just adds to his accomplished amateur run.
However, luck was not on side of either Amit or Manish, both of whom went down in split verdicts. Amit, who was chasing his third successive international gold, was beaten by England’s European silver-medallist Galal Yafai. “I am disappointed with the result. I thought it was 50-50 bout,” Amit said after his loss.
Manish, on the other hand, lost 2-3 to local favourite Harry Garside, again on a split decision. Both the boxers gave their all in the bouts but could not get the judges’ nod.