Mandeep eases into pre-quarters of Asian C’ships

Bangkok, August 28

Commonwealth Games silver medallist Mandeep Jangra took just over a minute to force his rival out of the contest with a bloodied face and book a pre-quarterfinals berth in the Asian Boxing Championships here today.

Jangra, competing in the welterweight 69kg category, took down Vietnam’s Vien Ngoc Huynh 3-0 in the bout which had to be stopped quite early.

Jangra, who won silver in the previous edition, landed a powerful right hook which left a deep cut just below the left eye of Huynh, forcing the discontinuation of the bout.

“Mandeep dominated from the word go. The injury to the other guy was accidental and unfortunate. The judges gave it to Mandeep on points,” national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu said.

Mandeep will take on Japan’s Ysauhiro Suzuki in the pre-quarters on Sunday.

Tomorrow, former Asian Games silver medallist Manpreet Singh (91kg) will start his campaign against Sri Lanka’s Nuvan Sugeewa Sampath in the first round.

Satish Kumar (+91kg) will fight it out against Hyok Ri Jin of Korea, while Manish Kaushik (60kg) will take on China’s Chin Long. Previous edition’s silver-medallist L Devendro Singh (49kg), Madan Lal (52kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Kuldeep Singh (81kg) got byes.

Depending on the size of the draw in each category, only the medallists or the winners of the probable box-offs would make the cut for the World Championships to be held in Doha in October. It’s the first qualifying event for next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The Asian continent has got 66 quota places to the Doha event which is the second highest after the European continent. A total of 188 boxers from 28 nations are in the tournament — the biggest ever in terms of participation. — PTI