Report by Mohd. Omar Malik
21-year-old debutant (a debutant is someone who is playing/performing for the first time. This first performance is called a debut), Akash Kumar, won the Bronze Medal in the Men’s 54kg category at the Youth AIBA World Boxing Championship.
He was also awarded prize money $25,000. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated him on Twitter for his achievement.
France’s Billal Bennama also won the Bronze Medal alongside Akash.
Japan’s Tomoya Tsuboi bagged the gold medal and Kazakhstan’s Makhmud Sabyrkhan got the silver medal. Akash Kumar was defeated (0-5) by Kazakhstan’s 19-year-old Makhmud Sabyrkhan. Bagging the bronze medal makes him the seventh Indian male boxing medalist at the prestigious tournament.
Previous Indian medalists at the 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).