Thapa enters quarfterfinals

Shiva Thapa (56kg) joined the other Indian pugilists in the quarterfinals of the ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championship in Amman, Jordan.

With Olympian L Devendro Singh (49kg) also getting a bye in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday, five Indian boxers now have a chance to make it to the semifinals.

Manoj Kumar (64kg), Mandeep Jangra (69kg) and Sukhdeep Singh (75kg) had already advanced to the quarterfinals. Thapa was making his second international appearance since the 2012 London Olympics – first being the Konstantin Korotkov Memorial in Russia where he won a bronze medal.

He came out all charged up against his Chinese Taipei opponent Li Lin Yen. Thapa’s sharp attacks and good footwork proved too much for his opponent and he won on a unanimous decision from the judges. In the next round, he will square off against Kazakhstan national champion Kairat Yeraliyev. 

Devendro,21, will now face off against an upcoming Uzbek boxer Nodirjon Mirzakhmedov.
However, there was disappointment in store in the other weight divisions. Olympian and Asian Games silver medallist Dinesh Kumar (91kg) lost his quarterfinal encounter against some heavy hitting from Mirzabek Hasanov of Uzbekistan. 
 
Madan Lal (52kg) also came up short in his pre-quarterfinal bout against Shakhobiddin Zoirov of Uzbekistan.