BOXING AMIT, GAURAV IN QFS, THAPA PULLS OUT

Hamburg, Aug. 28: Unheralded Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg) advanced to the quarter-finals with an upset win but Shiva Thapa’s quest for a second world boxing championship medal ended without exchanging a single blow as he was forced to withdraw due to food poisoning and fever, here on Monday.

Thapa, seeded fifth in the lightweight 60kg category, was to take on Georgia’s Otar Eranosyan in his second round bout after a first round bye.

However, weakened by food poisoning and high fever, he was forced to give a walkover in what would have been his opening bout.

“He was throwing up last night and this morning, he was running high fever as well. He couldn’t have fought... We tried to do everything but he was very weak,” an Indian team official said.

Also making an exit from the tournament was Manoj Kumar (69kg). The former Commonwealth Games gold medallist went down in a split verdict to fourth seed Venezuelan Gabriel Maestre Perez.

However, Gaurav ensured that India had something to celebrate. He got the better of Ukrainian Mykola Butsenko in an exhausting pre-quarter-final bout here on Sunday night.

The Delhi boxer, who got into the event on a wildcard after missing out on automatic qualification, held his nerves and matched his Butsenko punch for punch.

However, third seed and 2011 World Championships bronze medallist Vikas Krishan (75kg) was ousted after a second-round loss. He bowed out after being bested by England’s Benjamin Whittaker.

Earlier, Amit Phangal (49kg) upstaged a fancied rival to enter the quarter-finals, stunning seventh seed Carlos Quipo of Ecuador. — PTI