Three more Indians in World Jr Boxing C'ship QFs

After Gaurav Bhiduri (48kg), Namit Bahadur (50kg) and Sandeep's (46kg) pre-quarterfinal wins yesterday, the Indian presence in the quarters is now six-strong.
In a nerve-wrecking contest, Kuldeep (57kg) defeated Andrei Mikhailov of Belarus 9-8.
After the opening two minutes went neck and neck, Kuldeep trailed Mikhailov 5-6 at the end of the second round.
Tied 8-8 just 20 seconds before the close of bout, Kuldeep sneaked past his opponent by a point. Kuldeep faces Georgia's Aleko Chadashvilli in his last-eight stage bout.
In bantam weight, Vikas Khatri scored an 8-2 win over Poland's Przemyslaw Runowski to enter the quarterfinals.
However, making his international debut, Mandeep Jangra (60kg), protege of Beijing Olympics quarter-finalist and World Cup bronze medallist Akhil Kumar, bowed out with a narrow 1-2 defeat at the hands of Lithuania's Ricardas Kuncaitis.
Both the boxers couldn't score a point in the first round and most part of the second round. Ricardas opened his account first and took a 1-0 lead in the second round.

Mandeep restored parity in the deciding third round but just 10 seconds before the end of bout, Ricardas managed to land a scoring blow to edge out the Indian.
Late last night, Shiva Thapa (52kg) made the quarters after notching a comfortable 9-2 win over Ukraine's Yuriy Shestak. The Hyder Aliyev Cup gold medallist Indian will now take on Israel's Makhlin Stanislav.