Boxer Shiv Thapa settled for silver as he went down fighting to Cuban world champion Ramirez Robeisy Aloy in the bantam weight final on the penultimate of the Youth Olympic Games on Wednesday.
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 back-paddling 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 back-paddling and counter attacking tactics.
“The Cuban was back-paddling and counter-attacking and that did not allow Thapa to attack. It was a close bout and my ward gave his all,” Manoharan said.
With the silver won by Thapa today, India’s medal tally swelled to eight — six silver and two bronze.
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, 8-11. Bhandarkar and Das, however, sealed the tie by defeating Julia-Kevin pair in the doubles 11-3, 3-11 11-4, 11-8.
