Indian boxers will return empty-handed from the World Championships for the first time in four years after none of the five quarterfinalists managed to make the semifinal of the biennial mega-event, here today.
After the afternoon losses of fourth seed Shiva Thapa (56kg) and sixth seed Manoj Kumar, Vikash Malik (60kg) and Sumit Sangwan (81kg) also lost their quarterfinal bouts in the evening session.
Satish Kumar (+91kg), meanwhile, was declared medically unfit to fight after sustaining a cut above his right eye yesterday in the pre-quarters.
While fourth seed Shiva went down to Azerbaijan's Javid Chalabiyev, sixth seed Manoj was defeated by Cuba's Yasnier Lopez. Both the boxers lost by a similar margin of 0-3.
Later in the second session, Vikash lost 0-3 to fourth seeded Brazillian Robson Conceicao, a Pan-American Games silver-medallist.
Sumit (81kg), on the other hand, went down to world number one and top seed Adilbek Niyazymbetov of Kazakhstan.
Shiva was the first to take the ring and made an energetic start, showcasing some fine ring craft to wriggle out when cornered but Chalabiyev's aggression impressed the judges, who gave first round unanimously to Chalabiyev.
In the second round, both the boxers tried to counter-attack but ended up clinching and holding each other for the majority of the time. There was hardly any aggression on display but Chalabiyev managed to have the upperhand in this round too.
