Yekaterinburg (Russia ), Sep 21 (UNI) Star Indian pugilist Amit Panghal settled for silver medal at the World Boxing Championship, after losing to Uzbekistan's Shakhobidin Zoirov in the 52kg category final on Saturday.
The second-seeded Panghal became the first Indian male pugilist to win a silver metal in the World Championship.
India finished second in the world event, after having its best ever medal haul of two. Manish Kaushik (63kg) had signed off with a bronze earlier, after losing in the semifinals.
In the historic final, Shakhobidin Zoirov dominated right from the start, landed few punches to the perfection and pushed Amit Panghal on the backfoot.
Amit played defensively in the second round and couldn't do counter-attack against his opponent. The second seeded Panghal tried his best, but couldn't prevent the loss in the finals.
Earlier, Panghal had became the first male Indian boxer to qualify for the final of a World Boxing Championship, beating Kazakhstan's Saken Bibbisinov in the flyweight (48-52kg) semi-final on Friday.
Panghal had also surpassed World Championship bronze medalists of the likes of Vijender Singh (2009), Vikas Krishan (2011), Shiva Thapa (2015) and Gaurav Bidhuri (2017), after becoming the first Indian male boxer to breach the semi-final barrier.
In recent times, Panghal has been one of India's most consistent boxers. Ever since Panghal went on to win the bronze at Asian Championships in 2017, the 23-year-old has been on rise.
Panghal won the Asian Games gold medal in 2018, months after winning the silver medal in Commonwealth Games. He had also won a gold at the Asian Championships in April, 2019.
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