Amit Panghal to lead India at World C’ships

New Delhi: Amit Panghal rode on his Asian Championships gold to get a direct entry, while Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Manish Kaushik edged past Shiva Thapa in India’s eight-strong squad for the World Boxing Championships in September.
Manish claimed the newly-created 63kg category spot in the team ahead of four-time Asian medallist Shiva in the national trials for the big event to be held in Ekaterinburg, Russia from September 7 to 21. Amit (52kg) was given a place in the squad for winning a gold at the Asian Championships which was the original criterion for selection.
Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg), Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg), Brijesh Yadav (81kg), Sanjeet (91kg), and Satish Kumar (+91kg) joined him through trials held at NIS Patiala last weekend. Only the top two boxers from each of the categories were eligible for the trials with their recent performances being the criteria for selecting the face-off names, the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) said in a statement.
Manish claimed a split verdict over the 2015 World Championships bronze-medallist Shiva. Shiva had avenged his 2018 India Open loss to Manish at this year’s edition in Guwahati to claim the gold. “This was a huge confidence-boosting win for me after losing to Shiva in the India Open final. I had been working hard on my stance and footwork since the loss and I am glad it paid off. I am looking forward to giving my best” Manish said. (PTI)