Sanjeet, Akash reach pre-quarters of World Boxing Championships

Shiva Thapa, Sumit and Sachin Kumar will be in action on Saturday.

Reigning Asian champion Sanjeet stormed into pre-quarterfinals after defeating Russia's Andrei Tsotskii at the 2021 AIBA Men’s World Boxing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on Friday.  

In the closely contested initial two rounds of the 92kg second round match, both the boxers, going after each other, traded some heavy blows. However, the boxer from Rohtak, who defeated Rio Olympics silver medallist Vassiliy Levit to clinch the Asian Championships title earlier this year, kept his cool and not only showed a good defence technique but also struck sharp punches.

The 24-year-old Indian produced a well-composed performance in the final round to win the bout by a 4-1 decision. Sanjeet was given a bye in the opening round of the competition and will now play the Last-16 match on Sunday. Meanwhile, another Indian in action today, Akash Kumar also advanced into the pre-quarter-finals after he received a walkover in the 54kg opening round match against Salah Ibrahim of Germany. He will now square off against Puerto Rican pugilist Caleb Tirado in the Last-16 stage on Sunday.

Later tonight, Nishant Dev (71kg) will play his round-of-32 match against Merven Clair of Mauritius. On Saturday, four Indian boxers will be seen in action. Govind Sahani will fight against Georgia's Sakhil Alakhverdovi in the pre-quarterfinals match while Shiva Thapa (63.5kg), Sumit (75kg) and Sachin Kumar (80kg) will play their respective round-of-32 matches.  

Earlier, during the matches played late on Thursday night, youngsters Rohit Mor (57kg) and Akash Sangwan continued their impressive run in the tournament and registered victories in their respective round-of-32 matches. 

While the 20-year-old debutant Rohit outclassed Alen Rahmic of Bosnia and Herzegovina by unanimous margin in the featherweight category, Akash recorded a confident 4-1 victory against German pugilist Daniel Krotter in the 67kg category. This came after Narender provided India a winning start for the day by defeating Sierra Leone’s Mohamed Kendeh by RSC verdict in the +92kg round-of-32 match.  

Narender will be up against Tajikistan’s experienced boxer and 2006 Asian Games gold medallist Jakhon Qurbonov in the pre-quarterfinals on Sunday. In the Last-16 matches on Monday, Rohit (57kg) will take Serik Temirzhanov of Kazakhstan, who entered the pre-quarterfinals by defeating youth world champion Japan’s Reito Tsutsumi. On the other hand, the 21-year-old Akash will square off against Cuban boxer Kevin Brown.

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