Sandeep advances to pre-quarters in Armenia

The Indian camp returned with a mixed bag of results in the evening session of play on Saturday (1 Dec 12) at the AIBA Youth National Boxing Championship in Armenia. Sandeep Sharma (75kg), a bronze medallist at the 2010 International Invitational tournament in Kazakhstan defeated Joongwon Kim of Korea in what was a fantastic display of some precise punching. He now advanced to the pre-quarter finals of the middle weight division and needs to win two more bouts to get into the medal round of the tournament. The 17 year old Services boxer led throughout the bout never giving Kim the space to settle into a rhythm. In the end he claimed victory by virtue of points 18-6 (4-2, 8-3, 6-1). He now rivals 2010 European Junior Championships bronze medallist Berika Mhechadze of Georgia on Monday (3 Dec 2012) for a place in the quarter-finals. But India’s welter weight boxer Manjeet Panghal’s (69kg) campaign at the Youth World Championships came to an end at the hand of German Youth National Champion Abbas Baraou. Phaghal was completely out of sorts against the attacking play of the German boxer and lost with an RSC decision in round 1.

The morning session of bouts on day four turned out to be a dampener for the Indian contingent. Both boxers in the fray – Amritpreet Singh (91kg) and Nagesh Kharare (60kg) bowed out of the tournament after suffering defeat in the round of 32. Singh, the 2012 Junior National Championship gold medallist, was up against Pawel Wierzbicki of Poland. The 18 year old, who beat Armin Prasovic of Montenegro in his opening round bout, was slow to get off the mark. The Polish boxer tound in the second round though and seemed to be getting back in the game. He was leading 9-7 in the round when, unfortunateok complete advantage of his sluggish start and raced to an 8-3 lead after the first three minutes of play. The Indian came aroly, after receiving a blow to the head he had to retire due to injury. Reigning Youth National Champion Kharkare put up a strong fight in the round of 32 of the light weight division, but in the end came up short against English boxer Edward Cheeseman. The first round went in favour of Kharkare, but Cheeseman’s stinging hooks and jabs overpowered the Indian boxer in the next two rounds. In the end Kharkare lost on points 12-19.

The evening session of play on day four will see two more Indian boxers take to the canvas at the Karen Demirchyan Sport Complex in Yerevan. Silver medallist at the 2012 Tammer International Tournament, Dheeraj (52kg) will open his campaign at the Youth WC against Roman Formanek of Slovakia while Super heavy weight boxer Narender (+91) will battle Hussein Iashaish from Jordan in his first bout of the championship.