SARAJEVO: Rohit Mor wins, Asian champ Sanjeet gets bye in boxing world championship

SARAJEVO: Debutant Rohit Mor (57kg) gave
India a winning start after Asian champion Sanjeet (92kg) received a
first-round bye, along with one other boxer from the country, as record
participation presented an expectedly strong field across weight categories at
the AIBA Men’s World Championships here.

Rohit
defeated Ecuador’s Jean Caicedo 5-0 in a confident opening-round performance
this evening. Next up for him is Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Alen Rahimic.

The other
Indian to get a bye is also a tournament debutant in Sachin Kumar (80kg). He
will face American Robby Gonzalez in the second round on October30.

Sanjeet
will be up against Russian Andre Stotskii in his opening bout on October 29.

With more
than 600 boxers from over 100 countries in fray, a lot of competitors will have
to win at least three bouts in some categories to get to the quarterfinal
stage.

Five-time
Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) is one such boxer.

Thapa who
won a bronze at the world showpiece in 2015, will open his campaign against
Kenya’s Victor Odhiambo Nyadera on Tuesday.

Asian
silver-medallist Deepak Kumar (51kg), who impressed last year with his
giant-slaying performances en route to a silver at the prestigious Strandja
memorial tournament, will square off against Kyrgyzstan’s Azat Usenaliev in his
opening bout on Tuesday.

A day
later, debutant Govind Sahani (48kg) will face Ecuador’s Billy Joao Ortiz in
his opening bout.

In the
54kg division, Akash Kumar (54kg) has Germany’s Omar Salah as his first-round
opponent and he will take the ring on October 29.

Later
this evening Akash (67kg) will compete against Turkey’s Furkan Adem.

On
Wednesday, Varinder Singh (60kg) will fight Armenia’s Karen Tonakanyan, while
Nishat Dev (71kg) will face Hungary’s Laszlo Kozak in his first bout.

Lakshya
Chahar (86kg) will take on Korean Kim Hyeongkyu on the same day.

Sumit
(75kG) will join Thapa and Deepk in competing on Tuesday when he takes the ring
against Jamaica’s Damon O’Neill.

In the 92kg
category, Narender will square off against Poland’s Oskar Safaryan on Tuesday.

The
gold-winners at the showpiece will walk away with a prize money of USD 100,000.

The
silver medallists are to be given USD 50,000, and both bronze-medallists will
be awarded USD 25,000 each. The total prize purse stands at a whopping USD 2.6
million.

All the
boxers representing India are reigning national champions.

They are
accompanied by a rejigged support staff led by outgoing High Performance
Director Santiago Nieva and newly-appointed head coach Narender Rana with
former Commonwealth Games silver-medallist L Devendro Singh among the assistant
coaches.