Manish Kaushik ended his first World Boxing Championship with a bronze medal, as he was defeated by reigning gold medallist Andy Cruz of Cuba.
Commonwealth Games silver-winner Kaushik, competing in his debut world championship, won the bronze medal after a 0-5 loss to top-seeded Cuban Andy Gomez Cruz, a gold-medallist from the previous edition besides being the reigning Pan-American Games champion.
Before this, India had never won more than one bronze medal in a single edition of the world championships but Panghal and Kaushik changed that by making the semifinals.
The past Indian medal-winners at the world meet are Vijender Singh (2009), Vikas Krishan (2011), Shiva Thapa (2015) and Gaurav Bidhuri (2017).
In the semifinal, Kaushik struggled to keep up with the Cuban, whose counter-attacking game was simply outstanding.
Kaushik did get a few body punches through but couldn't fend off the counter-strikes that came his way in all the three rounds.
"I gave it my all but I guess there are a few things lacking in my game, which I will try to improve on. I will work harder and deliver better results in the coming tournaments," Kaushik said.
Earlier, Amit Panghal became the first Indian to enter the final of the World Men's Boxing Championships.
