Hamburg,
Wildcard entrant Gaurav Bidhuri’s remarkable run at the World Boxing Championships ended with a bronze medal after he lost his semifinal clash to American Duke Ragan. India thus ended the tournament with a bronze medal, equalling the performance of 2009 (Vijender Singh), 2011 (Vikas Krishan) and 2015 (Shiva Thapa).

In a bout fought primarily on defensive tactics, the 20-year-old American had a slight edge in the opening round. Both the boxers spent the better part of it waiting for the other to make the first attack, the grunting Ragan seemed more in control lunging forward. Bidhuri did well to connect on the counter-attack but the lack of aggression from his side made a lot of difference to the final outcome. The second round was fought on an even keel and Bidhuri managed to surprise his rival by cornering him on more than one occasion.

Both the boxers went on the defensive in the final round but Ragan broke free with his right hooks to clinch the issue. Ragan will now face England’s Peter McGrail in the final on Saturday.

“Both of us had studied each other’s style and were well-prepared. However, he changed his style completely, which came to me as a surprise. His current coach used to be my coach earlier so Duke had additional inputs on my style. But he (Regan Duke) played really well,” said Bidhuri.

Bidhuri, who has been battling a back problem for the last eight months, thus completed a roller-coaster ride in a tournament he hadn’t even qualified for to start with. The 24-year-old made the lucky break count by upstaging Ukraine’s Mykola Butsenko in the pre-quarterfinals.