Gritty Akash Kumar ends with bronze at World Boxing Championships

Debutant Akash Kumar (54kg) signed off with a bronze medal in AIBA Men's World Boxing Championships after being bested by Kazakh teenr Makhmud Sabyrkhan in semifinals in Belgrade on Thursday.

21-year-old Akash lost 0-5 to end India's campaign in marquee competition, where Akash became only seventh Indian male boxer to secure a medal. He also claimed a prize money of USD 25,000.

Indian started superbly but Sabyrkhan got his measure in a matter of seconds, scoring primarily with his fantastic right crosses to slow down Akash after early burst.

19-year-old Kazakh, who is reigning national champion of his country, was less exuberant of two but was clinical in his execution, t letting slip any chances at scoring off counter-attacks.

Sabyrkhan clinched opening round unanimously and maintained lead in second round as well even though Akash gave a much better account of himself by managing to trouble Kazakh with his jabs.

However, Sabyrkhan was t to be fazed by Akash's sporadic shots. He was just too accurate for Akash.

Despite loss, Haryana-lad, who hails from Bhiwani, can be proud of fantastic performance in his maiden senior international competition.

Akash had upstd former Olympic silver-medallist Yoel Fil Rivas of Venezuela in quarterfinals.

A product of Army Sports Institute in Pune, Services boxer lost his mor to a lung infection in September and competed in national championships unaware of trdy.

His far died more than a decade back after initiating him to boxing and his bror is in jail since 2017 in connection with a murder case.

In all, five Indians made quarterfinals but four of m, including 2015 bronze-winner Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) and reigning Asian champion Sanjeet (92kg) lost in quarterfinal st.

India had secured an unprecedented silver through Amit Panghal in event's previous edition, while Manish Kaushik had claimed a bronze.

India's previous medal winners at World Championships were Vijender Singh (Bronze, 2009), Vikas Krishan (Bronze, 2011), Thapa (Bronze, 2015), Gaurav Bidhuri (Bronze, 2017), Panghal (Silver, 2019) and Kaushik (Bronze, 2019).

gold winners at showpiece will walk away with a prize money of USD 100,000.

silver medallists are to be given USD 50,000, and both bronze-medallists will be awarded USD 25,000 each. total prize purse stands at a whopping USD 2.6 million.

India were being represented by its reigning national champions across weight categories.