Amit Panghal, Vikas Krishan in semis; India assured of 15 medals at Asian Boxing C’ships

Dubai, May 27 (PTI): Defending champion Amit Panghal (52kg) and the redoubtable Vikas Krishan (69kg) were among three Indian boxers who advanced to the semifinals as the country assured itself of an unparalleled medal haul of 15 in the Asian Boxing Championships here. Debutant Varinder Singh (60kg) was the other Indian to make the last four.
Panghal secured a second successive medal after overcoming a stiff challenge from Mongolia’s Kharkhuu Enkhmandakh in the last-eight stage, while Varinder defeated Filipino Jere Samuel Dela Cruz 5-0.
Vikas then pulled off a hard-fought 4-1 triumph over Iran’s Moslem Maghsoudi Mal Amir as India surpassed its previous best medal haul of 13 that was achieved in the 2019 edition. The World Championship silver-winning Panghal, who is bound for Tokyo Olympics, won 3-2 in a high-octane contest in which he overcame a sluggish start and used his combination punches to telling effect in the last two rounds. After being somewhat bested in the opening three minutes, the top-seeded Army man’s trademark pace came to fore in the second round as he cleverly dodged his rival’s aggressive attempts at connecting.
The Mongolian produced some fine body punches to unsettle Panghal but took quite a few hits on the counter-attack. Panghal will square off against Kazakhstan’s Saken Bibossinov. He had beaten Bibossinov in the 2019 world championship finals.