Tashkent: Fourth seed Shiva Thapa (60kg) advanced to the quarterfinals of the Asian Boxing Championships with a hard-fought victory, here Tuesday.
Shiva, a World Championships bronze medallist and a two- time medallist at the Asian meet, edged past Kyrgyzstan’s Omurbek Malabekov in a split verdict. He will face Chinese Taipei’s Chu-En Lai for a place in the semifinals, Wednesday. His presence in the last four stage will automatically grant him a bronze medal.
Also advancing to the quarters was Sumit Sangwan (91kg). He defeated Mongolia’s Erdenebayar Sandagsuren in his last 16 bout late Monday night. Up ahead for Sumit is third-seeded Chinese Fengkai Yu.
Shiva managed to get the better of Omurbek by landing most of the few clean punches in the bout. Both boxers played the waiting game for a major part of the contest but the Indian pugilist was a shade ahead of his rival in capitalising on the opportunities he got.
Omurbek, despite his long reach, struggled to connect cleanly and even ended up sustaining a cut above his left eye.
Vikas Krishan (75kg), Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg) and Amit Phangal (49kg) are the other Indian boxers to have entered the quarters so far.
The tournament, featuring 179 boxers from 28 countries, is a qualifier for the August-September World Championships in Hamburg, Germany. The top six in each of the 10 weight categories in this tournament will make the cut for the big event.
PTI
