Amit Panghal, Sanjeet strike gold at French boxing tourney
New Delhi: World silver-medallist Amit Panghal (52kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) struck gold in their first competition after a coronavirus-forced break, claiming the top honours at the Alexis Vastine International Boxing Tournament in Nantes, France.
Amit, also an Asian Games champion, defeated American Rene Abraham 3-0 with a dominating performance.
Sanjeet, a former India Open gold-medallist, too put up a clinical show to get past Frenchman Soheb Bouafia in his summit clash and secure a gold.
However, Asian silver-medallist Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) settled for a silver medal after going down to local favourite Samuel Kistohurry in a split 2-1 verdict.
India had earlier secured three bronze medals through four-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (63kg), Sumit Sangwan (81kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg). All three of them lost in the semifinal stage.
This was the first international competition that Indian boxers featured in since the Olympic qualifiers in Jordan in March.
In that event, nine Indians -- five men and four women -- qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, postponed to next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Indians' competition calendar as well as training schedule has been severely hampered by the shutdown that followed the spread of the pandemic which has caused a bar a on sparring at the national camp.
The Indians are currently on a 52-day training trip to Europe during which they have been primarily based in Assisi, Italy. The boxers and their support staff left for the trip on October 15.
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NDA to boycott Feb 5 TN bypoll, says BJP leader Annamalai
The BJP-led NDA has decided to boycott the Erode East bypoll scheduled for February 5 and would focus on dethroning the ruling DMK in the hustings next year, the saffron party's state unit said on Sunday.
The BJP's announcement virtually makes the election a no-contest as the main opposition AIADMK and the DMDK have already announced boycotting the byelections necessitated by the death of Congress MLA EVKS Elangovan. The DMK has nominated VC Chandrakumar on behalf of its-led bloc, which also has the Congress in the alliance.
BJP TN chief K Annamalai said the upcoming elections were a “byelection for a byelection”, following the bypoll held here in 2022. He recalled there were accusations of the ruling DMK then "confining" people at designated places.
The NDA faced the DMK violating poll rules due to the "arrogance" of being the ruling party.
"The coming 2026 Assembly polls are one meant to remove the DMK (from the ruling saddle), and the NDA is moving towards that target and does not want to allow the DMK to confine people like cattle once again," he said in a statement.
"All leaders of the NDA who wish for people's welfare, after detailed consultation, have decided to boycott the Erode East bypoll. Our target is to remove the DMK in the 2026 elections and give the NDA's good governance to people," Annamalai said.
The state has been pushed to a "dark period" with no safety for various sections of society and the DMK government was an "anti-people" one where law and order has also failed, the former IPS officer alleged.
NDA constituents in the state include Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK).
Incidentally, the AIADMK that was a part of the NDA in 2022 had fielded its nominee in that year's bypoll to Erode East seat but lost to Congress' Elangovan, who faced the elections following the death of his son and local MLA E Thirumahan Everaa.
