Top seed Vikas Krishan (75kg) took barely a couple of minutes to book his quarterfinal berth as Indian boxers began their campaign on a positive note at the Asian Boxing Championships on Monday, PTI reported.
Vikas, a silver-medallist in the previous edition, sailed past Thailand’s Pathomsak Kuttiya after his opponent sustained a cut above his left eye just over a minute into the opening round.
The bout was halted twice before the referee decided to stop the contest in favour of the Indian. The former World Championships bronze-medallist will face Indonesia’s Betaubun Brama Hendra in the last-eight stage.
Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg) also defeated a Thai in his first contest, going past Yuttapong Tongdee in a points decision. Gaurav has a tough bout coming up as he will be squaring off against second seed Jiawei Hang of China.
Amit Phangal (49kg), a bronze-medallist from the Strandja Memorial Tournament (Bulgaria) in February, had no trouble beating Afghanistan’s Ramish Rahmani in his opening contest.
However, it was curtains for Asian youth silver-winner Ashish Kumar (64kg), who was defeated by Uzbekistan’s Ikboljon Kholdarov.
All the four were competing in the pre-quarterfinal stage after getting first-round byes.
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 will make the cut for the big event.
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