BOXING
Six Indians in the fray for gold at Seychelles National Day Boxing Tournament
Six Indian boxers will compete for gold at the Seychelles National Day Boxing Tournament 2025 on Sunday, following a series of strong semifinal performances at the Paradise Arena in Mahe.
Aditya Pratap (65kg) of Uttar Pradesh, who has previously represented India at the Elorda Cup in Kazakhstan and holds a silver from the National Combined Finals, impressed with an RSC win in the third round over home favourite Jovanie Bouzin.
Neeraj (75kg), another silver medallist at the National Combined, mirrored that effort with an RSC second round victory over his opponent.
Himanshu Sharma (50kg) of Haryana, a former Belgrade Boxing Champion and bronze medallist at the 6th Elite Nationals, secured a confident 4:1 win on points against Mathieu Soupprayen of Mauritius.
In the 55kg bout, Ashish Mudshaniya of Uttar Pradesh, the reigning National Combined champion, continued his fine form with a solid 4:1 victory over Guillaume Francis, also from Mauritius.
Haryana’s Anmol (60kg), a National Combined silver medallist, earned a composed 4:1 split decision win against Dario Gaberiel of Seychelles.
Kartik Dalal (70kg) showed heart in a closely contested bout but lost 1:4 on points to South Africa’s Blessing Nziyana.
Rounding off the Indian contingent competing for gold is Gaurav Chauhan (90+kg) from Services, a seasoned heavyweight who won gold at the 37th National Games and bronze at the 2024 Elorda Cup.
Gaurav received a direct entry into the final and will look to add another medal to his name.
-Team Sportstar
WRESTLING
Men’s freestyle wresters also win team title at U23 Asian championship
The Indian men’s freestyle team produced its best-ever show at the U23 Asian Asian Wrestling Championship, winning six gold and a silver to clinch the team title at Vung Tau in Vietnam.
In an unprecedented success for India, both men’s and women’s teams won the team championships. The women team had won medal in each of the 10 categories.
Winning the gold were Nikhil (61kg), Sujeet Kalkal (65kg), Jaideep (74kg), Chander Mohan (79kg), Sachin (92kg) and Vicky (97kg).
Jaspooran Singh won the silver in 125kg weight class..
The Greco Roman team won three medals, including a gold, in the tournament.
-PTI
GOLF
Amandeep, four other Indians make cut in Czech Ladies Open
India’s Amandeep Drall birdied her final two holes as she rallied to an even-par second round and be tied in 12th place after two rounds of the Tipsport Czech Ladies Open here.
Amandeep, who had a superb 8-under 64 in the opening round, added a 72 in round two to make the cut along with four other Indians.
The next best Indian was Hitaashee Bakshi (68-70) at 6-under and in T-32 place. Diksha Dagar (71), Tvesa Malik (69) and Sneha Singh (68) also fought hard to make the cut on the line at T-61. A total of 71 players, including two amateurs, made the cut.
Swiss golfer Kim Metraux produced a career-best round of 63 (-9) to storm into sole lead on 13-under par.
In second spot was Esme Hamilton, the rookie Englishwoman teeing up in only her sixth LET event. She replicated her first round 66 (-6) to remain in contention.
Amandeep had a rough day as she was 2-over through 16 holes with one birdie and three bogeys before she rallied with birdies on the last two holes.
Diksha finished earliest among the Indians with 71 that had four birdies and three bogeys. Later, Hitaashee had a steady 2-under 70 with four birdies and two bogeys on day two.
Tvesa and Sneha kept flirting with the cut before landing birdies towards the end. Tvesa picked birdies on two of the last three holes and, despite a bogey on the closing ninth, made the cut.
Sneha, an Order of Merit winner in her home circuit, played bravely to birdie three times in the last five holes to cross over the cut line.
Metraux lit things up from the get-go, carding three birdies in a row on the 10th, 11th and 12th. She added two more birdies on the 16th and 18th to go out in 31. On her second nine, she added birdies on the third, fifth, seventh and the eighth.
The career-best round was made even more special given that Metraux’s husband, Rodolphe, was alongside her on the bag.
In a tie for third place on 10-under par are the Mallorcan duo Nuria Iturrioz (66) and Luna Sobron Galmes (67) and 16-year-old rookie Anna Huang (65).
-PTI
