Amit, Manish assure India’s best ever show at Worlds
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 with impressive victories here on Wednesday.
While Asian Games and Asian Championship gold medallist Panghal defeated Filipino Carlo Paalam 4-1, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Kaushik got the better of Brazil’s Wanderson de Oliveira 5-0.
Both boxers sealed their maiden worlds medals.
Before this year, India had never won more than one bronze medal in a single edition of the world championships.The overall count for India stood at four bronze—Vijender Singh (2009), Vikas Krishan (2011), Shiva Thapa (2015) and Gaurav Bidhuri (2017).
However, Sanjeet (91kg), a former India Open gold medallist, and fifth seed and Asian silver winner Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) lost their respective quarter-finals.
While Sanjeet went down 1-4 to Ecuador’s seventh seed Julio Castillo Torres, a Pan-American Games silver medallist, Bisht was beaten by reigning Commonwealth Games champion Peter McGrail of England 0-5.
The second seeded Panghal, who had earlier defeated Paalam in the Asian Games semi-finals last year, wasn’t off to the best of starts and was trailing at the end of the opening round. But the Army man from Rohtak didn’t take long to get his act together and become the more aggressive one in the next two rounds.
“I started slow but I dominated the second and third rounds. 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 game plan as well,” Panghal said.
In the last-four stage, the Haryana pugilist will be up against Kazakh Saken Bibossinov, who stunned Armenia’s European gold medallist and sixth seed Artur Hovhannisyan in his quarter-final. “He is a southpaw and has a long reach. I’ll work out a strategy for him,” the 23-year-old Panghal said.
The Indian finished a quarterfinalist in the last edition after losing a fiercely contested bout to the then defending champion Hasanboy Dusmatov in 49kg.
Kaushik, a former national champion 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 Russian eighth seed Ilia Popov. Cruz was the 64kg gold medallist in 2017 and is also a two-time Pan American Games gold winner.
Sanjeet, also making his debut at the event, did come up with a spirited show against Torres. The Ecuadorian put more power in his punches and displayed sharp reflexes in avoiding the Indian’s counter hits to prevail in a thoroughly entertaining contest.
In the last Indian bout of the day, Bisht was up against fourth seeded Englishman McGrail, a former gold medallist at the European Championships. The boxer from Uttarakhand fought with a deep gash above his right eye but didn’t look perturbed.
However, McGrail was just too good for him with a deadly left hand which regularly struck, scoring uppercuts.
It was Bisht’s second successive world championship appearance. He had finished as a quarter-finalist even the last time around.