India’s Rhythm produced a strong performance to enter the men’s +92kg quarter-finals while the youth Asian champion Vanshaj and three more Indian male pugilists marched into the last-16 stage on third day of the IBA Youth Men’s and Women’s World Boxing Championships 2022 in La Nucia, Spain.
Rhythm started off the match aggressively against Latvia’s Miks Berzins. His relentless attack from the word go left no room for the opponent to recover as the referees intervened just after a few minutes in the first round before announcing Indian the winner of the round-of-16 match with Referee Stops Contest verdict.
This came after Jadumani Singh Mandengbam (51kg) and Bharat Joon (92kg) began the day’s proceedings for India with dominating wins in the men’s Round-of-32. While Jadumani outpunched Azerbaijan’s Amin Mammadzada 5-0, Bharat also beat Spanish boxer Ruben Ibanez by a similar margin.
Later, Vanshaj, who hails from Haryana, extended his winning run at the prestigious championships when he blanked Japan’s Masatake Yoshizumi by unanimous decision in the 63.5kg last-32 bout.
Aman Rathore (67kg) too had an easy outing as he beat Puerto Rico Alexis Soto convincingly by 5-0 margin.
Rockey Chaudhary was the lone Indian pugilist to end up on the losing side on Day 3. He lost to Halil Dogru of Turkey by 1-4 in the 80kg category.
Six Indians, including two women, will be in action on the fourth day of the tournament. Nikhil (57kg), Harsh (60kg) and Sahil Chauhan (71kg) will play their respective round-of-32 matches while Mohit (86kg) will play in the Last-16 stage.
Ravina (63kg) and Kunjarani Devi Thongam (60kg) will fight in the women’s pre-quarterfinals.