The commonwealth games gold medallist Amit Panghal, National champion Akash and men’s National bronze medalist Abhimanyu put up a stellar show to move into the quarter-final of the 75th Strandja Memorial Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria on Wednesday.
Amit (51kg) had Rudyk Maksym’s challenge to tackle as he eyed his place in the quarters. The experienced campaigner quickly got into his groove and his ability to efficiently get into the attacking position was on display throughout the bout.
The first two rounds were all about taking on the opponent, while in the third round, Amit employed his defensive tactics to frustrate his Ukrainian opponent and capitalize on his errors, advancing to the quarter-finals with a dominant 5-0 unanimous decision win. Amit will face Aldarkhishig Battulga of Mongolia on Friday.
Akash (71kg) was up against Traore Makan of France. Akash started slow but soon picked up the pace as he displayed swift movement and landed a flurry of punches, surprising his opponents and gaining a significant lead. The performance continued in the second round as Akash continued to be a dominant force in the bout.
Traore did make a comeback in the third round but Akash’s exploits in the first two rounds were enough to ensure him a 3-1 win as he entered the quarter-final. Akash will now take on Mckeever Eugene of Ireland on Friday.
Abhimany Loura (80kg) showed a similar display of dominance against Monny Raphael of France. The boxer from Haryana made full use of his long reach as he delivered lethal punches for which the opponent had no answer for.
Abhimanyu grabbed the win with a 5-0 verdict and will face the Asian Games gold medallist China’s Tuohetaerbieke Tanglatihan in the quarter-final on Friday.
Later tonight, Naveen Kumar (92kg) and Deepak (75kg) will be in action against Voisnarovic Darius of Lithuania and Asankul Uulu Sultan of Kyrgyzstan in their round of 16 clash.
The quarter-final action will start on Thursday as Nikhat Zareen (50kg) will be up against Lkhadiri Wassila of France, Sakshi (57kg) will face Mamajonova Khumorabonu of Uzbekistan and Arundhati Choudhary (66kg) will square off against Matovic Milena of Serbia.
Jugnoo (86kg) and Sagar (+92kg) will take on Uzbekistan’s Djalolov Samandar and Zokirov Jakhongir respectively. Naveen (92kg) will also have his quarter-finals bout tomorrow depending on his round of 16 match result tonight.
The Strandja Memorial Tournament is one of Europe’s oldest international sports competitions and is witnessing the participation of over 300 pugilists from 30 countries.