Four Indian pugilists had to be contended with bronze medals after suffering defeats in the penultimate round of the ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championship in Subic Bay, Philippines.
Narender Berwal (+91kg), Lalitha Prasad (49kg), Abhishek Beniwal (81kg) and Amritpreet Singh (91kg) ended their campaign at the semi-final stage after losing out to their respective opponents.
The Indian pugilists did well to qualify for the round of four, and in the semi-finals as well they put up a stunning challenge making things difficult for their opponents.
2012 Youth World Championships silver medallist, Berwal defeated Kazak boxer Dastan Kurmanbetov in an exciting comeback to make his place in the penultimate round.
Up against Ulugbek Mubinov -- the national title holder from Uzbekistan Elite Men's Boxing Championships, the 18-year-old Berwal from Haryana did well and kept close on heels of the Uzbek boxer.
He used his height to good advantage and kept scoring on counters. But Mubinov, with his superior in-fighting maintained the lead and did not let Narender settle down; the Indian lost on points 8-11.
Aglorav Cup bronze medallist, Abhishek and heavy weight boxer Amritpreet too displayed great skills and came agonisingly close to making a bid for the gold medal in their respective weight division. But the two 18-year-old boxers ended up on the losing side in the end.
