India's Gunjan became the first Indian woman boxer to win a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games on Thursday, November 12, beating Algeria's Bouthaina Bensalah 5-0 in the women's 48kg final at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, MyKhel reported.

Source: MyKhel

Gunjan dominated all three rounds of the final and won a unanimous 5-0 verdict, with all five judges scoring the bout 30-27 in her favour, RevSportz reported. It was India's second boxing gold of the day: Manipur's Lairenlakpam Ambekar Meetei had won the men's 50kg title earlier on Thursday, in a story already live on Awaaz Punjab. Together, the two medals were India's first-ever boxing golds at the Youth Olympics, IANS reported.

Source: IANS

Revenge on the road to gold

Gunjan's road to the title began with a first-round bye, followed by a 5-0 quarter-final win over Mexico's Atena Sofia Juarez Calero and a 4-1 semi-final win over Great Britain's Lily Bassett, RevSportz reported. The semi-final was a measure of revenge: Bassett had beaten Gunjan in the final of the 2026 World Boxing Futures Cup in Bangkok earlier this year, where the Indian had to settle for silver. Gunjan reached the final on Wednesday, November 11 — a development already reported on Awaaz Punjab — and finished the job the next day.

Source: RevSportz

The Haryana boxer trains at the Manjeet Lohan Boxing Club in Hisar under international professional boxer Vikas Lohan, RevSportz reported. Boxing Federation of India president Ajay Singh called it "a historic moment for Indian boxing and Indian sport", saying the two gold medals also opened India's gold account at the Dakar 2026 Games, IANS reported. With the two boxing golds, India stood on two gold, three silver and five bronze medals and had jumped from 58th to 16th in the medal tally, IANS reported. Before Thursday, India's only Youth Olympics boxing medals were Shiva Thapa's silver in the men's 54kg and Vikas Krishan's bronze in the 60kg at the inaugural Singapore 2010 Games.

Source: IANS