Prasad, Sandeep settle for bronze at Youth World boxing

Lalitha Prasad (49kg) and Sandeep Sharma (75kg) had to settle for a bronze medal after losing in the penultimate round of the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in Armenia on Thursday.

While Prasad was outdone by Bin LV of China, Sandeep went down to Magomed Madyiev of Russia in the semi-finals.

Prasad, a 2012 Tammer International Tournament winner, booked his place in the round of four after drubbing Kosie Tanaka of Japan.

But in the semi-finals, he was unable to reproduce the form of the previous round against the feisty Chinese boxer, who made full use of the canvas throughout the bout.

Playing the outside game he made it difficult for Prasad to get within attacking distance. The 17-year-old Indian was down a point after the opening three minutes (2-3).

In the second round, Prasad tried to be more aggressive in order to break the solid guard of his opponent, but was caught in the counter-attacks of Bin on every occasion.

By the end of the second round he was trailing by three points (4-7).

Contrary to the Indian camp's expectations, action continued in the same vein in the final round as well.

Prasad, a multiple Youth National champion, was found lacking in aggression and Bin kept nicking points with his counter jabs and hooks. He finally lost on points 8-13.

Sandeep, a bronze medallist at the 2010 International Invitational tournament in Kazakhstan, overpowered Azizjon Mamatov of Uzbekistan in a one-sided affair to make it to the last four of the middleweight division.

But the 17-year-old faltered in the semis. He gave a good account of his skills against some formidable boxing by the Russian boxer, but, in the end, Magomed proved too strong.