Shiva settles for silver at Asian Championships

Fourth seed Shiva Thapa (60kg) settled for a silver medal at the Asian Boxing Championships after an injury-forced loss in the final here today, becoming the first Indian to claim three back-to-back medals at the continental showpiece.

Shiva, up against second seed and local favourite Elnur Abduraimov, lost in a split verdict after a head-butt from his opponent resulted in a cut.

It was in the final few seconds of the opening round when Shiva sustained the cut, forcing a stoppage by the referee.

The disappointment of missing out on the gold aside, the silver is his third successive medal at the continental showpiece after a gold in 2013 and a bronze in the 2015 edition. 

"I am happy to have achieved the twin targets of a medal as well as qualification for the World Championships. This is my



first international medal in lightweight and I always had the self-belief that I could achieve it," Shiva told PTI.

The Assam-pugilist, a World Championships bronze- medallist in bantamweight (56kg), shifted to lightweight in December last year. He went on to win a gold medal at the National Championships before a couple of early losses in tournaments in Bulgaria and Thailand.

"It was a big decision and I am glad I have managed to prove myself. I was very clear that I wanted to compete in lightweight and even though it didn't go quite well in a couple of tournaments, I knew I could do it," he said.

The 23-year-old defeated Olympic bronze-medallist, Asian Games gold-medallist and top seed Dorjnyambuu Otgondalai of Mongolia in the semifinal yesterday, during which he also sustained a cut above his eye.