Hussamuddin, Deepak, Nishant sign off with bronze

Deepak Bhoria (51kg), Mohammed Hussamuddin (57kg) and Nishant Dev (71kg) signed off with bronze medals at the World Boxing Championships, wrapping up India's best-ever show at the marquee event here on Friday.

It was heartbreak for Hussamuddin as the Nizamabad boxer was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury about an hour before his semi-final bout. On the other hand, Deepak's memorable campaign came to end as he went down fighting to two-time World Championships bronze medallist France's Bilal Bennama 3-4 in a close contest which went into bout review.

Nishant's semi-final also went to bout review with the judges ruling in favour of the 2022 asian champion and 2018 Asian Games silver medallist Aslanbek Shymbergenov of Kazakhstan. Deepak was named in the squad ahead of 2019 Worlds silver medallist Amit Panghal.

Earlier, Hussamuddin, 29, sustained a knee injury in his quarter-final bout against J Diaz Ibanez of Bulgaria and decided against risking aggravation. “Hussamuddin gives a walkover due to injury and settles for bronze. He had a knee injury in the last bout after which he had pain and swelling,” Boxing Federation of India (BFI) said in a statement.

“After careful and detailed assessment by medical team, Team Management have decided that he won't take part in the semi final bout which is to take place today as he doesn't want the injury to aggravate rather recover for future competitions.”