Castellon: Vikas Krishan Yadav knocked out London Olympics bronze medalist Vicenzo Mangiacapre in 2012 to advance to the men’s 69k semi-finals on the third day at the Boxam International Tournament.
The Commonwealth Games champion, Vikas, who has already secured a place to sleep for his third Olympic Games in Tokyo, got rid of the Italian Mangiacapre in a 3-2 split.
Apart from Vikas, five more Indian men’s boxers recorded victories in their respective quarter-finals to secure India six medals in the men’s category at the 35th edition of the tournament.
Bronze medalist Mohammed Husamuddin of the 2018 Commonwealth Games scored a 5-0 victory over Italian Simone Spada in the 57kg, while world champion bronze medalist Manish Kaushik, who returns after a year in the ring, won by Scored 4-1 against Safiullin Zakir of Kazakhstan.
Ashish Kumar (75 kg), the silver medalist of the Asian Championship in 2019, and Sumit Sangwan (81 kg) also reached the semi-finals with 4-1 victories in their respective matches. While Kumar beat Italian Remo Salvatti, Sangwan beat Belgian Ziad El Mohor.
Satish Kumar, the first Indian boxer to qualify in + 91 kg at the Olympics, is the other Indian to advance to the semi-finals. He outscored Denmark’s Morten Givskov Nielson 5-0.
Meanwhile, World Cup silver medalists Amit Panghal (52kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) suffered defeats in their respective last eight. Panghal fought 3-2 against local favorite and European Games champion Gabriel Escobar. Sanjeet lost 3-2 to Italy’s Matteo Girolamo.
With ten medals already confirmed, India’s four women’s and six men’s pugilists will claim a place in the gold medal match as they play their semi-final on Friday night. In the women’s category, Olympic bronze medalist Mary Kom (51kg), Jasmine (57kg), Simranjit (60kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) will be seen in action, while all six men boxer, who will compete on the third day won, their respective last four clashes late Friday.
Source: Telangana Today