The seasoned duo of Shiva Thapa and Manoj Kumar advanced to the quarterfinals but an injured L Devendro Singh bowed out of the senior men's National Boxing Championships here today.
Representing his home state Assam, defending champion Shiva, a three-time Asian medallist and a World Championships bronze-medallist, defeated Chattisgarh's Suraj Singh to make the last eight stage of the lightweight (60kg) category.
Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj (Railways Sports Promotion Board), on the other hand, got the better of Mizoram's Anthony Lalduhawma in the welterweight (69kg) division. Manoj is also the defending champion in his weight category.
Also entering the last-eight stage was Mandeep Jangra (75kg), competing for the Railways Sports Promotion Board. He defeated Madhya Pradesh's Robin Soni in his prequarterfinal bout.
However, another Commonwealth Games silver-winner L Devendro Singh had to pull out after being declared medically unfit due to a cut sustained above his eye in yesterday's bout.
He was to fight Jharkhand's Vijay Arora in the flyweight 52kg pre-quarterfinal. Devendro had won a silver medal in the last edition of the championship.
Three-time King's Cup gold-medallist K Shyam Kumar (RSPB), who won a silver medal last year, had little trouble in punching past Punjab's Himanshu Sharma.
King's Cup bronze-medallist Rohit Tokas (RSPB) sailed past Maharashtra's Kaalicharan to also enter the quarterfinals.
However, former Asian youth silver-medallist Ankush Dahiya (RSPB), who won a gold medal at the Ulaanbaatar Cup in Mongolia earlier this year, bowed out after losing a close contest to Manish Kaushik of the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB). He was competing in the lightweight division.
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