Boxing Championship: Shiva Thapa takes his fifth Asian medal

Telangana’s Hussamuddin bows out in quarterfinals

New Delhi: Shiva Thapa put up a scintillating performance to outpunch Nader Odah in the men’s 64kg quarter-finals at the ASBC Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai on Tuesday.

With a comprehensive 5-0 victory against Kuwait’s Odah, Assam boxer progressed into the semi-finals and also confirmed his fifth back-to-back medal at the Asian Championships. Previously, Thapa has won one gold (2013), one silver (2017) and two bronze (2015 and 2019) at the Championships.

---

Showing a fine display of attacking boxing Thapa dominated Odah throughout the bout and hardly gave him any opportunity to score a point. The Indian will have tough task in the last-4 round as he will take on top-seeded Bakhodur Usmonov of Tajikistan.

Earlier on the Day 2 of the prestigious event, which is jointly hosted by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) and UAE Boxing Federation, Mohammad Hussamuddin went down fighting 1-4 against the reigning world champion and top-seed Mirazizbek Mirzahalilov in the men’s 56kg quarter-finals.

The defending champion Mirzahalilov started the contest with an aggressive intent and saw landing fierce punches. Hussamuddin however tried to gain momentum with a good defence and counter-attacking punches but the experienced Uzbek boxer did not allow Indian any chance of comeback before completing a 4-1 victory in the close-fought game.

Third day of the prestigious event will see India’s Olympic-bound men pugilists Amit Panghal, Vikas Krishan and Ashish Kumar kick-starting their campaign alongside two other boxers in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.