Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
Vikas Krishan Yadav(69kg) outpunched the London Olympic Games bronze medallist Vicenzo Mangiacapre and led six-Indian pugilists in the semi-finals on the third day at the Boxam International Tournament in Castellon, Spain.
With this India is assured of 10 medals (six men ,4 women)
The Commonwealth Games champion Vikas, who has already secured a berth for his third Olympics in Tokyo, accounted for Italian Mangiacapre in a 3-2 split decision.
Apart from Vikas, five more Indian men boxers registered victories in their respective quarter-final bouts to assure India six medals in men’s category at the 35th edition of the tournament.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mohammed Husamuddin notched up a 5-0 win against Italy’s Simone Spada in the 57kg .
World Championships bronze medallist Manish Kaushik,recorded a 4-1 win against Safiullin Zakir of Kazakhstan.
2019 Asian Championship silver medallist Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Sumit Sangwan (81kg) also made their way into the semi-finals with 4-1 wins in their respective matches.
Ashish beat Italy’s Remo Salvatti and Sumit won against Belgiumโs Ziad El Mohor.
Satish Kumar, the first Indian boxer to qualify in +91kg at Olympics, outclassed Denmarkโs Morten Givskov Nielson 5-0.
Meanwhile, World Championship silver medallist Amit Panghal (52kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) suffered defeats in their respective last-8 bout.
Panghal lost to local favourite and European Games champion Gabriel Escobar 2-3. Sanjeet went down to Italyโs Matteo Girolamo 2-3.
In the women’s category, Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom (51kg), Jasmine (57kg), Simranjit (60kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) are in Semis