Men's World Boxing Championships: Narender Berwal Storms Into Pre-Quarterfinals

Narender Berwal advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after winning a closely-contested bout while Govind Sahani and Deepak Kumar too entered the pre-quarters at the IBA Men's World Boxing Championships here on Thursday. With a quarter-final finish at the previous World Championships under his belt, Narender (+92kg) began his quest for a medal by defeating Muhammad Abroridinov of Tajikistan 4-1.

Both pugilists, who won bronze at the 2022 Asian Championships, went all out from the beginning in the neck-and-neck bout. Narender landed powerful punches and dodged his opponent's attacks from close range to have the upper hand in the first round.

The Hisar-born pugilist continued to attack on the front foot in the next two rounds and won the bout. He will face the 2021 World Youth Championships bronze medallist Fernando Arzola of Cuba in the quarter-finals. Earlier in the day, 2022 Thailand Open champion Govind (48kg) and 2019 Asian silver medallist Deepak (51kg) kicked off their respective campaigns with identical victories.

Our __ boxers on a roll __

Narender secures 3__rd win of the day __@AjaySingh_SG l @debojo_m #MWCHs#TeamIndia#WorldChampionships#PunchMeinHaiDum#Boxing @berwal_narender pic.twitter.com/Y1IcXvfClv — Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) May 4, 2023

Govind, who has had an outstanding year so far with a gold at the National Championships and a silver at the 74th Strandja Memorial, continued his rich vein of form as he made light work of Mehron Shafiev of Tajikistan to secure a 5-0 win.

Deepak, on the other hand, was also at his attacking best as he ousted Luis Delgado of Ecuador with his supreme technical ability to seal an emphatic victory by unanimous decision. Govind will next face the top-seeded Sakhil Alakhverdovi of Georgia who won bronze at the last World Championships while Deepak will take on the Tokyo Olympics bronze winner and reigning world champion Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan.

Record six-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) will take the ring for his tournament opener against Dos Reis Yuri of Brazil later in the day. On Friday, two-time Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mohammad Hussamuddin, Tokyo Olympian Ashish Chaudhary and Naveen Kumar will all be in pre-quarterfinals action.

Hussamuddin (57kg) will go head to head against Lyu Ping of China while Ashish (80kg) will face a tough challenge against two-time Olympic gold medallist Arlen Lopez of Cuba. Naveen (92kg) will take on Jeong Jae-min of South Korea. The ongoing tournament is being participated by 538 boxers, including several Olympic medallists, from 107 countries.