Narender Berwal storms into pre-quarters, Govind, Deepak move; Thapa makes exit

TASHKENT: Putting on a commanding display, Narender Berwal registered a stellar victory and advanced to the pre-quarter finals of the IBA Men's World Boxing Championships 2023 while Govind Sahani and Deepak Kumar entered the next round to ensure India dominated proceedings, here on Thursday. But Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) crashed out of the championships.

With a quarter-final finish at the previous World Championships under his belt, Narender (+92kg) began his quest for a medal at the ongoing edition by defeating Muhammad Abroridinov of Tajikistan in a closely contested encounter by 4-1. Both pugilists who won bronze at the 2022 Asian Championships went all out in the neck-and-neck bout from the word go.

Narender landed powerful punches and dodged his opponent's attacks from close range to have the upper hand in the first round. In spite of a stern fight put up by Abroridinov, the Hisar-born pugilist continued to attack on the front foot in the next two rounds and prevailed in the bout.

He will face the 2021 World Youth Championships bronze medallist Fernando Arzola of Cuba in the next round.

Earlier in the day, the 2022 Thailand Open champion Govind (48kg) and 2019 Asian silver medallist Deepak (51kg) kicked off their respective campaigns with identical victories.

Govind, who has had an outstanding year so far with a gold at the Nationals Championships and a silver at the 74th Strandja Memorial, continued his rich vein of form as he made lightwork of Mehron Shafiev of Tajikistan to secure a 5-0 win.

Deepak, on the other hand, was also at his attacking best as he ousted Luis Delgado of Ecuador with his supreme technical ability to seal an emphatic victory by unanimous decision.

Following their emphatic victories, Govind will face the top-seeded Sakhil Alakhverdovi of Georgia who won bronze at the last World Championships while Deepak will take on the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist and reigning World Champion Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan.

Six-time Asian medallist and Worlds bronze medallist Shiva, who got a first round bye, lost 3-4 to Brazilian southpaw Yuri Reis through ‘bout review.’

Reis used his quick hands to stay narrowly ahead in the first two rounds whereas Shiva dominated the third by landing a bigger volume of punches. Agencies

Also Read: World Boxing Championship: Nishant Dev sails into pre-quarters in 71 kgs

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