The seasoned Vikas Krishan and the fast-rising Amit Panghal advanced to the quarter-finals of the 69th Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament at Sofia on Wednesday.
Former world and Asian Games medallist Krishan (75 kg), who is making a comeback after recovering from a hand injury, defeated Morocco’s Amer Gnifid to make the last-eight stage. It was a thoroughly nuanced performance by Krishan, who relied on sharp counter-attacks to outwit his rival.
World Championships quarter-finalist Panghal (49 kg), a gold-medallist from last month’s India Open, defeated a Mauritian in his last-16 stage bout, got the better of Sharvin Kumar. Also advancing to the quarter-finals was Manish Panwar (81 kg), who defeated Moroccan’s Mohammed Amin.
However, it was an early ouster for veteran Manoj Kumar (69 kg), and world and Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (60 kg). Manoj went down to Morocco’s Abdelkabir Bellassek in his pre-quarter-final bout, which was also his first of the tournament. Later in the evening, Thapa lost an evenly-contested bout to Kazakhstan’s Adilet Kurmatov.
The Indian was the more attacking of the two but went down to a split decision. India are assured of four medals so far in the tournament courtesy of the women boxers – Seema Punia (+81 kg), Saweety Boora (75 kg), Mena Kumari Devi (54 kg) and Bhagyabati Kachari (81 kg).
While Saweety and Meena won their quarter-final contests, Seema and Bhagyabati got byes.