Ekaterinburg (Russia): India were assured of an unprecedented two medals at the World Men’s Boxing Championships after Amit Panghal (52kg) and Manish Kaushik (63kg) entered the semifinals of the marquee event with impressive victories here Wednesday. Even if the two lose their semifinals, they will get a bronze medal each. This incidentally is their maiden World medals.
While Asian Games and championship gold medallist Amit Panghal defeated Filipino Carlo Paalam 4-1, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Manish Kaushik got the better of Brazil’s Wanderson de Oliveira 5-0.
However, Sanjeet (91kg), a former India Open gold medallist, lost 1-4 to Ecuador’s seventh-seeded Julio Castillo Torres in his quarterfinal bout.
Before this edition of the tournament, India had never won more than one bronze medal in a single edition of the World Championship. The overall medal count for the country stood at four bronze medals claimed by Vijender Singh (2009), Vikas Krishan (2011), Shiva Thapa (2015) and Gaurav Bidhuri (2017).
Second-seeded Panghal, who had earlier defeated Paalam in the Asian Games semifinals last year, wasn’t off to the best of starts and was trailing Paalam at the end of the opening round.
But the Armyman from Rohtak didn’t take long to get his act together and become the more aggressive one in the next two rounds to emerge winner.
“I started slow but I think I dominated the second and third round. I was told by my coaches to be aggressive and I tried to be that. I had fought against him earlier so that gave me a fair idea of his gameplan as well,” Amit Panghal said after the bout.
In the last-four stage, the Haryana pugilist will be up against Kazakhstan’s Saken Bibossinov, who stunned Armenia’s European gold medallist and sixth seed Artur Hovhannisyan in his quarterfinal showdown. “He is a southpaw and has a long reach, I will work out a strategy for him,” the 23-year-old Panghal said.
Manish Kaushik making his debut at the world event, was the next to take the ring and produced a composed performance against a flamboyant rival, who paid for a very poor defence.
Kaushik was sharp with his counter-attacks and not for once seemed fazed by his opponent’s attempts at trying to draw him in with a low guard.
Next up for Kaushik is Cuban top seed Andy Gomez Cruz, who out-punched Russia’s eighth-seeded Ilia Popov.
PTI
