Indian boxers who won medals at this year’s World Boxing Cup in Brazil and Kazakhstan were felicitated by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) on Thursday. India won four gold, six silver and seven bronze medals across the two legs in the tournament’s inaugural edition. Each gold medallist received a cash prize of ₹2 lakh. Silver and bronze medallists were awarded ₹1 lakh and ₹50,000 each respectively.

Sakshi (54kg), Jaismine Lamboria (57kg) and Nupur (80+kg) were among the standout performers in the second leg in Astana, which was held from June 30 to July 7, while Hitesh Gulia (70kg) emerged victorious in Brazil in April. Notably, Hitesh and Abhinash Jamwal (65kg) secured medals in both legs.

The World Boxing Cup finals will be held in India in November.

Vijender Singh, who was the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal with his bronze in Beijing 2008, was in attendance for the event on Thursday.

BFI elections on track: Ajay Singh

With the BFI currently being run by a six-member interim panel whose tenure is till August 31, acting president Ajay Singh said that fresh elections are on track.

“The BFI elections will be held on August 27 or 28 tentatively,” he told the media. “We did start the process of conducting the elections in March. But it was held up due to various litigations. The world body, World Boxing, subsequently created an interim panel. We have been asked to conduct elections before August 31.”

On Vijender’s involvement, he said: “He is a huge inspiration for our boxers. We also want to use his skills and expertise to oversee some of our training processes and give us suggestions. He has just started to be involved.”