NEW DELHI: Asian silver-medallist
Shiva Thapa
(60kg) and
Gaurav Bidhuri
entered the finals while five other Indians made the semifinals at the
Grand Prix Usti Nad Labem
boxing tournament in Czech Republic.
Shiva defeated local favourite Erik Huleiv in a unanimous verdict to advance. Bidhuri (52kg) made the final in his category after getting a bye.
Five other Indians were also assured of bronze medals. They were Kavinder Bisht (52kg), Amit Phangal (49kg),
Sumit Sangwan
(91kg) and Manish Panwar (81kg) and
Manoj Kumar (69kg).
While Sumit defeated Czech Republic's Jiri Horky, Manish got the better of Belgium's Yassine Aydir. The rest advanced with byes.
Entering the last-eight stage owing to opening-round bye was
Satish Kumar (+91kg) and Ashish Kumar (64kg).
Seven of the nine Indian boxers competing in this tournament have qualified for the World Championships in Hamburg, Germany from August 25 to September 2.
The World Championships-bound boxers are Amit, Kavinder, Gaurav, Shiva, Manoj, Sumit and Satish.
Vikas Krishan (75kg) has also qualified for the mega- event but he is not travelling with the team right now. He is currently training in Pune.