Two Indian boxers – Amit Panghal (52 kg) and Manish Kaushik (63 kg) – will be aiming to better the country’s best ever show when they compete in their respective semifinal bouts at the World Championships on Friday, 20 September.
India have never had two semifinalists at the marquee event for amateur boxers and in that respect, the two Haryana boxers have already made history.
Panghal has in his way Kazakhstan's Saken Bibossinov, who stunned Armenia's European gold-medalist and sixth seed Artur Hovhannisyan in the quarterfinals.
Kaushik, on the other hand, faces the most accomplished boxer in his weight category – Cuban top seed Andy Gomez Cruz, who out-punched Russia's eighth-seeded Ilia Popov in the last-eight stage.
Cruz, who was the light welterweight (64 kg) gold-medalist in the 2017 edition, is also a two-time Pan American Games gold-winner and not to mention, a terrific mover inside the ring.
World Boxing Championships: Schedule for Indian Boxers Semifinals
- 52 kg: Amit Panghal vs Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan, 3:45 pm IST
- 63 kg: Manish Kaushik vs Andy Gomez Cruz of Cuba, 4 pm IST
Manish, Amit No Pushovers
Amit and Manish are up against tough challengers but that in no way makes them underdogs.
Panghal, the pint-sized dynamo from Rohtak, is the reigning Asian Games and Championships gold-medalist and has got back-to-back gold medals at one of Europe's oldest tournament – the Strandja Memorial.
Kaushik, the shy man hailing from the cradle of Indian boxing Bhiwani, is a Commonwealth Games gold-medalist and a two-time national medal winner.
Both wrestlers are employed with the Indian Army and both have shown a soldier’s grit in some daunting bouts thus far.
In the 2017 edition of the world championships, Panghal nearly took down the then defending champion Hasanboy Dusmatov in the quarters, but lost by the most slender of margins. The Indian got his revenge a year later in the Asian Games final, where a gold catapulted him to star-status in Indian boxing.
Kaushik has had a stop-start career so far. He first hit the headlines when he took down 2015 world bronze-winner and three-time Asian medalist Shiva Thapa in the national championship finals.
That victory opened the doors of the senior national camp for him and he has been locked in a neck-and neck battle for a place in the side with Thapa ever since. So, while the CWG slot went to him, Thapa took the Asian Games last year.
Before this year, India had never won more than one bronze medal in a single edition of the world championship.
The overall medal count for the country before the ongoing edition stood at four bronze medals, claimed by Vijender Singh (2009), Vikas Krishan (2011), Shiva Thapa (2015) and Gaurav Bidhuri (2017).
(With inputs from PTI)
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