Asiad gold medalist Amit Panghal nominated for Arjuna award

Asian Games gold medal-winning Indian boxer Amit Panghal was yesterday nominated for this year's Arjuna awards by the Boxing Federation of India.

Amit joined Sonia Lather and Gaurav Bidhuri in the list of boxing nominees for the second highest sporting honour after the Khel Ratna.

Amit claimed the light flyweight (49kg) category gold after defeating reigning Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in the Asiad final.

The 22-year-old Amit is only the eighth Indian boxer to claim an Asiad gold.





Among the boxing nominees, he faces competition from Sonia, a world and Asian silver-medallist and Bidhuri, only the fourth Indian boxer ever to get a World Championship medal.  

The National Sports Awards ceremony, held on August 29 every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand, will be organised on September 25 this year.

The change in schedule was done because of the clash of dates with the Asian Games, which concluded on September 2 in Jakarta.