New Delhi: Boxing Federation of India (BFI) has announced the contingent for the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Uzbekistan’s Tashkent. Big names like Mohammed Hussamuddin and Shiva Thapa will be leading the 13-men contingent. However, CWG gold medallist and former world number 1 Amit Panghal’s name has been omitted from the list.
Shiva Thapa, who won a world championship bronze in 2015 and was the silver medallist at the Asia Championships last year, will be India’s bet to get a medal this year. Two-time CWG bronze medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin is also another experienced campaigner for India and will be competing in the 57kg category.
Deepak Bhoria, who replaced Panghal in the 51kg category, has been one of the most improved Indian boxers recently. He won a silver medal in the 2019 Asian Championships.
India’s ace boxer Amit Panghal had to miss out as the federation, under the recommendation of High-Performance Director Bernard Dunne, changed the concept of selection trials and brought in an evaluation process at the national camp. Panghal scored 682 points over three weeks at the national camp while Deepak scored 731. Bhoria is a great bet for India as he beat the Rio Olympic gold medallist and 2019 World Champion Shakhobidin Zoirov in 2021.
The Indian squad will leave for the world championships on April 17 while the tournament will be played from April 30 to May 14. 640 boxers from 104 countries will be competing for the titles where the gold medallists will be awarded $2,00,000 while silver and bronze medallists will get $1,00,000 and $50,000 respectively.
While Nitu Ghanghas, Saweety Bora, Lovlina Borgohain and Nikhat Zareen won the gold medals at the Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, India has high hopes from the men’s contingent.
Indian Contingent: Govind Sahani (48kg), Deepak Bhoria (51kg), Sachin Siwach (54kg), Mohammad Hussamuddin (57kg), Varinder Singh (60kg), Shiva Thapa (63.5kg), Akash Sangwan (67kg), Nishant Dev (71kg), Sumit Kundu (75kg), Ashish Chaudhary (80kg), Harsh Choudhary (86kg), Naveen Kumar (92kg) and Narender Berwal (92+kg).
