Indian boxers continued their good start at the 2021 AIBA World Boxing Championships with an easy win in Belgrade, Serbia on Tuesday, with three of them winning their opening round bouts.
Seasoned boxer Shiva Thapa, Deepak Bhoria, and Sumit won their respective bouts on Tuesday to advance in the competition.
The bronze medal winner of the 2015 edition and reigning national champion, Thapa looked in good touch against Kenya’s Victor Nyadera in the 63.5kg round-of-64 match. With technical supremacy, the boxer from Assam kept control over his opponent throughout the bout before recording a victory by a unanimous margin.
With this victory, the five-time Asian Championships medallist Thapa also extended India’s unbeaten run at the prestigious tournament after Rohit Mor and Akash Sangwan won their respective opening round bouts on Day 1. Thapa will now take on Sierra Leone’s John Brown in the Last-32 clash on Saturday.
Deepak Bhoria beat two-time Asian champion Azat Usenaliev of Kyrgyzstan 5-0 in 51kg Rd-32 match. Bhoria had a comparatively difficult challenge against the Kyrgyzstan boxer but came out unscathed.
Sumit (75kg) defeated Damon O’Neill of Jamaica 5-0 in the opening round match.
A 13-member Indian contingent started their campaign at the 21st edition of the tournament which will go on till November 6. With the participation of 650 top boxers from more than 100 countries, the championships is being played in 13 weight categories as per AIBA’s newly introduced weight divisions.
The gold medallists of each category will receive $100,000 while silver and bronze medallists will be given $50,000 and $25,000 respectively. Alongside an enormous prize pool of $2.6 million, AIBA will also award the winners with designed medals, made of solid gold and silver respectively, and belts to commemorate their accomplishments.
