Olympian Amit Panghal fails to make cut for the IBA World Boxing Championships

Olympian and 2019 world medalist, Amit Panghal, has failed to earn a berth for the upcoming International Boxing Association (IBA) men’s World Boxing Championships scheduled to be held in Uzbekistan.

Promising Deepak Bhoria has been selected in the men’s 51kg to compete at the World Boxing Championships starting April 30 in Tashkent, while Panghal, the 2018 Asian Games champion, will be a reserve.

“He (Bhoria) performed better than Panghal in sparring during the national camp in Patiala. Overall, a better performance was the main reason for Bhoria to get selected for the World Boxing Championships,” Dharmendra Yadav, national boxing team coach said.

Bhoria won a silver medal at the 2019 Asian championships and has been under the shadow of Panghal for the past three years. However, he proved himself in the national preparatory camp to stay ahead of Panghal.

Ahead of the prestigious men’s competition, the Indian contingent will have a 12 day-long exposure camp in Uzbekistan starting on Monday.

Six-time Asian champion Shiva Thapa has also made the national team in 63.5kg for the Tashkent World Boxing Championships.

Govind Sahani (48kg), Sachin Siwach (54kg), Mohammad Hussamuddin (57kg), Varinder Singh (60kg), Akash Sangwan (67kg), Nishant Dev (71kg), Sumit Kundu (75kg), Ashish Chaudhary (80kg), Harsh Choudhary (86kg), Naveen Kumar (92kg) and Narender Berwal (plus 92kg) are other members of the national boxing team selected by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).

Boxers from more than 100 nations are expected to compete at the Tashkent World Boxing Championships. The women’s world boxing championships was recently held in New Delhi. Indian women’s team won four gold medals.

Immediately on reaching Tashkent on Monday, the members of the national team had a practice session.

“The 12 days are long enough to get used to food and local weather conditions,” one of the players said.