Ekaterinburg (Russia), Sept 18:
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 today.
While Asian Games and 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 the boxers sealed their maiden world medals.
Before this year, 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).
However, Sanjeet (91kg), a former India Open gold-medallist, and fifth seed and Asian silver-winner Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) bowed out after losing their respective quarterfinals.
While Sanjeet went down 1-4 to Ecuador’s seventh-seeded Julio Castillo Torres, a Pan-American Games silver-medallist, Bisht was beaten by the reigning Commonwealth Games champion Peter McGrail of England 0-5.
The 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.(PTI)
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