Asian Boxing Championship: Shiva, Sumit qualifies for quarterfinals

Fourth seed Shiva Thapa on Tuesday advanced to the Asian Boxing Championship quarterfinals in 60 Kilogramme category after defeating Kyrgyzstan's Omurbek Malabekov in a split verdict. 

Shiva is a World Championships bronze-medallist and a two-time medallist at the Asian meet will face Chinese Taipei's Chu-En Lai in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Sumit Sangwan (91kg), a former gold-medallist also advanced at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers. He defeated Mongolia's Erdenebayar Sandagsuren in his last-16bout late last night. Up ahead for Sumit is third-seeded Chinese Fengkai Yu.

Vikas Krishan (75kg), Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg) and  Amit Phangal (49kg) are the other Indian boxers to have entered the quarters so far.

ALSO READ: Manpreet, Satish advance at Asian Boxing Championships

The tournament, featuring 179 boxers from 28 countries, is a qualifier for the August-September World Championships in Hamburg, Germany.

India had won four medals at the last Asian Championships in 2015. Vikas had won the country its lone silver medal, while Shiva, L Devendro Singh (52kg) and Satish (+91kg) had settled for bronze medals.

(With PTI Inputs)