Samota, Thapa win gold at Belgrade boxing event

Seasoned boxer Paramjeet Samota and prodigy Shiva Thapa clinched gold medals at the Belgrade Winner tournament here on Sunday.

Samota, competing in the super heavyweight category, had to fight hard against Marceta Mane of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the 22 year old continued to attack and in the end went on to take the yellow metal on individual score as the bout was tied at 6 all after three rounds.

He defeated the experienced Rustam Rygebayev of Kazakhstan in the semifinal. Samota had also won the gold at the Commonwealth Games last year.

Meanwhile, Thapa, playing his very first international tournament on the senior tour, was two points behind by the end of the second round in the final. But the 17-year-old came back hard in the third, defeating Bulgarian Delaklive Detelin to be crowned the champion in the bantamweight category.

Thapa was the silver medallist at the Youth World Boxing Championships last year.

Manpreet Singh, the silver medallist at the 2010 Asian Games earned a bronze medal for his performance in the heavyweight category. He lost to Pulev Tervel of Bulgaria in the semifinal.