Vikas, Shiva enter pre-quarters

Doha, October 6

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Vikas Krishan (75kg) and Shiva Thapa (56kg) notched up comprehensive victories to enter the pre-quarters and give India a good start at the World Championships here today. Thapa, a former Asian champion, started the proceedings on a perfect note as he outpunched Algeria's Khalil Litim 3-0. The 23-year-old will next face Morocco's Mohamed Hamout, who got a first-round bye.

Later, Krishan also sailed past Hungary’s Zoltan Harcsa 3-0 to make the last-16 stage. The Haryana boxer has a tough bout next up as he will be up against fourth seed Tomasz Jablonski, a silver medallist in the European Championships. He dominated his bout against an immensely jittery rival and won by a unanimous decision. “Both Shiva and Vikas dominated their bouts in the first two rounds and took it easy in the third for obvious reasons. They have tough opponents in the next round but we are expecting good results," said national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu.

However, it was curtains for Manoj Kumar (64kg) in the very first round as he was stunned 1-2 to Morocco’s Abdelhak Aatakni. The former Commonwealth Games gold medallist looked rusty in the opening round, and the loss of momentum cost him dearly. After being sluggish in the first two rounds, Kumar gathered himself in the final three minutes but it was too late to make a comeback.