India’s Rohit Chamoli (48kg), Ankush (66kg) and Gaurav Saini (70kg) advanced to the semi-finals of the ASBC Youth and Junior Boxing Championships in Dubai, assuring themselves of medals.

Three other Indian pugilists also registered victories on the opening day of the tournament.

Providing India momentum in the junior boys event, Chandigarh’s Chamoli outclassed Alhassan Qadous Sriya 5-0 while Ankush blanked Bader Shehab from Kuwait 5-0.

Haryana’s Saini too put up a dominating show against another Kuwaiti boxer Yaqoub Saadallah before he was declared the winner with Referee Stopping the Contest (RSC) in the second round of the bout.

Ashish (54kg), Anshul (57kg) and Preet Malik (63kg) were the other three junior pugilists to emerge victorious in their respective opening round matches.

On the other hand, Yashwrdhan Singh (60kg), Usman Mohd Sultan (50kg), Naksh Beniwal (75kg) and Rishabh Singh (81kg) suffered defeats in their respective preliminary bouts.

The 2021 world youth championships bronze medallist Bishwamitra Chongtham will begin his campaign in the prestigious continental event as six youth Indian boxers will be seen in action on the second day.

Apart from Bishwamitra, Daksh Singh (67kg), Deepak (75kg), Aditya Janghu (86kg), Abhimanyu Loura (92) and Preeti (57kg) will play their opening round matches.

The on-going Asian Championships will provide the much-needed competitive tournament to the promising young talents at the Asian level after a gap of almost two years lost due to pandemic.

The gold medalists in the youth age group will receive prize money of $6,000 while silver and bronze medalists will claim $3,000 and $1,500 respectively.

However, the junior champions will be awarded with $4,000 and, $2,000 and 1,000 for silver and bronze medalists respectively.