Thapa, Pooja punch their way to gold

Ashish finishes second-best as India picks up seven medals

October 31, 2019 10:09 pm | Updated 10:10 pm IST - Tokyo

Shiva Thapa and Pooja Rani

Shiva Thapa and Pooja Rani

Shiva Thapa (63kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) clinched gold medals with impressive wins, while Ashish (69kg) settled for a silver as India ended with seven medals at the Olympic Test event here on Thursday.

Nikhat Zareen (51kg), Simranjeet Kaur (60kg) Sumit Sangwan (91kg) and Vahlimpuia (75kg) had won bronze, after semifinal losses, on Wednesday.

Four-time Asian medallist and National champion Thapa out-punched Kazakhstan’s national champion and Asian bronze-winner Sanatali Toltayev 5-0 to claim the top honours.

Former Asian Games bronze-medallist Rani edged past Australia’s Caitlin Parker in a split 4-1 decision to ensure that the women’s contingent also had a gold in its kitty.

Asian bronze-medallist Ashish (69kg), however, lost to Japan’s Sewon Okazawa 4-1 in the final.

Thapa has been having a good year even though he is out of contention from next year’s first Olympic qualifier in China after Manish Kaushik secured the berth with a bronze in the World Championships.

This year, Thapa has already won an Asian bronze, followed by an India Open gold before being crowned the National champion for a third time earlier this month.

“Shiva has matured quite a lot in the last one year and this is showing in the way he is performing.

“He will continue to grow,” National coach C.A. Kuttappa said.

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