Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju Gives Cash Awards To Boxers Amit Panghal, Manish Kaushik; Assures Support For Olympics 

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday (23 September) handed the cash awards to boxers Amit Panghal and Manish Kaushik for winning silver and bronze medals respectively in Men’s World Boxing Championship in Ekaterinburg, Russia, reported The Indian Express.

Panghal, who won the silver medal in 52 Kg category, received a cash award of Rs 14 lakh, while Kaushik was given Rs 8 lakh for his bronze medal in 63 Kg category.

The performance by the duo ensured India’s best-ever performance at the boxing world championship as it had never brought two medals home before.

“I am very proud of India’s best-ever performance at the men’s Boxing World Championship. I feel India has a great future in boxing. In fact, even those boxers who reached the quarterfinal stage need to be congratulated for their performances,” Sports Minister Rijiju said.

Rijiju also hoped that India put up a good performance at 2020 Tokyo Olympics and assured the athletes preparing for Tokyo that he would support their efforts.

On Sunday, second seed Panghal became the first Indian boxer to finish number two in the world championship. In the final, he lost against Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan, after giving a tough fight.

23-year-old Panghal had, previously, won gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games and 2019 Asian Championships.

Kaushik too showcased a good run throughout the tournament and gave a surprise when he beat fourth seed and Asian Games silver medalist Baatarsukhin Chinzorig in the round of 16. In semi-finals, he could not get past top seed Andy Cruz Gomez.