Bangladesh's two gold-winning boxers in the South Asian Games Jewel Ahmed (L) and Abdur Rahim (C) take a ride on their jubilant teammates' shoulders during a victory lap along with their Thai coach Bandwana (wearing Rahim's medal) at the Mohammad Ali Boxing Stadium yesterday. Photo: STAR

Whenever Bangladesh hosted the South Asian Games, it saw its boxers presented gold and this time too the local boxers did not frustrate the nation as they grabbed two of those on the concluding day of the competition in the 11th edition of the regional sporting extravaganza at the newly-built Mohammad Ali Boxing Stadium yesterday.

Jewel Ahmed and Abdur Rahim wrote their names beside gold medalists Musharaf Hossain and Mozammel Haque, who won gold in 1985 and 1993 respectively when Bangladesh hosted the second and sixth editions of the then SAF Games.

Jewel outplayed Nepal's Ajit Gurng in the final of the lightweight 60kg category while Rahim defeated Sri Lankan Sisira Kumarasinghe in the light welterweight 64kg category to win gold medals.

There was a hope on Rahim, who moved into the second round in the World Boxing Championship in Italy beating a Bosnian boxer before being eliminated in the next round, though there was no hope on Jewel, who stunned all to win the final convincingly with a massive 31-17 points.

Jewel from Rajshahi fell in love with boxing at the age of six after having watched a boxing competition in his home town and took admission to the Rajshahi Boxing Club.

"Joy Bangladesh," were the first words from Jewel after the referee declared him winner in the ring.

"I am really happy and I thanked my coaches [Shafiul Azam and Kazi Shahadat] as well as my parents who inspired me a lot to play boxing," said Jewel.

Jewel also believed that the training he received in Thailand made him technically more sound and helped him become more confident.

Jewel is now looking forward to playing in the Commonwealth Games and Thailand's King Cup.

After winning the semifinal, Rahim was taken for a dope test that led him to lose confidence. But he regained his composure after passing the test.

"I was in doubt whether I would be able to win the final after the test because I had to lose weight for it, but I grew in confidence to do something for the nation and I kept my words and I can't express my feeling in words," said Rahim, who won bronze medal in the 2006 SA Games in Colombo.

Rahim grew in confidence during his training stints in Italy and Thailand where he fought against some good boxers.

Apart from Bangladeshi boxers, Afghanistan's Mohammad Aref took the light flyweight 48kg category gold medal beating Indian Amandeep in the final.

India also took two gold in boxing when Saranjoy Singh and Chhote Lal won medals in flyweight 51kg and featherweight 57kg categories respectively. Pakistan also bagged one gold with Naimutullah winning in the bantamweight 54kg category.

Of the six boxing medals, hosts Bangladesh won two gold and two bronze followed by India, who also won two gold and one silver. Pakistan won one gold and one silver while Afghanistan won one gold and three bronze. Nepal and Sri Lanka won one silver each.