Panghal, Kaushik assure India of medals at Boxing Worlds

Yekaterinburg (Russia), Sep. 18 (IANS): India’s Manish Kaushik (63kg) and Amit Panghal (52kg) on Wednesday reached the semi-finals in their respective weight categories and thus assured themselves of a medal each at the ongoing men’s World Boxing Championships in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

India have won only four medals in the history of the Worlds thus far and this will be the first time that more than one boxer from the country will be winning a medal at the same edition.

Second-seeded Panghal, who is the reigning Asian champion, beat Philippines’ Carlo Paalam 4-1 in the quarter finals. Commonwealth Games silver medallist Kaushik, on the other hand, beat Brazil’s Wanderson de Oliveira 5-0 by a unanimous decision to assure himself of a medal.

India has never won more than one bronze medal at any of the men’s World Championships before. Kaushik and Panghal’s results have already made this India’s best performance thus far.