Hamburg: In another good day for India, Manoj Kumar and Kavinder Bisht registered convincing victories over their opponents at the 19th World Boxing Championship here Sunday.
Manoj got better of Moldovan Vasilii Belous 3-2 in an exhausting welterweight (69kg) contest while Kavinder edged past Japan’s Ryusei Baba 3-2 in a similarly draining flyweight (52kg) bout.
Asian Championships quarterfinalist, Kavinder started cautiously measuring his opponent in the opening few minutes allowing Baba to land some clear blows to take an early advantage. However the Indian was quick to recover in the second round as his right hooks connected quite well to disrupt Baba’s rhythm. Kavinder, upped the ante further in the final three minutes to get the decisive nod from the judges in his favour. He will be up against third-seeded Algerian Mohamed Flissi in the next round.
Manoj, on the other hand was the next man in and gave it his all in the first two rounds. The 31-year-old former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist was in his elements from the word go and used his reach to good effect against Belous who had little to offer and resorted to throwing wild swings at the Indian. The burst did tire out Manoj in the last round allowing his opponent to take an advantage at that stage who, by then has ensured that the final verdict went in his favor. He will face fourth-seeded Venezuelan Gabriel Maestre Perez in the second round.
“Both Manoj and Kavinder had tough bouts in a very different way. But they knew how to manoeuvre and they did just that,” India’s Swedish coach Santiago Nieva said after the bouts.
However, to a slight disappointment Asian Games bronze medallist Satish Kumar (+91kg) bowed out of the competition losing to two-time World Champion Mahammadrasul Majidov 5-0 in his opening bout.
press trust of india
