Indian boxers Naveen Boora and Manjeet Singh registered comprehensive victories in their respective categories on the third day at the 72nd Strandja Memorial tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The 2019 national champion Boora outpunched Brazil's Eravio Edson 5-0 to enter in the 69kg semi-finals. With a place in the last-4, Boora is now assured of at least a bronze medal.
Boora had progressed into the last-8 stage with a 3-2 win over Armen Mashakaryan of Armenia B in the men's 69kg category. Manjeet, who is playing his first senior international tournament, notched up an easy 4-0 win against Irish boxer Gytis Lisinskas to progress into the 91kg plus quarter-finals. The Haryana boxer will play against Armenia B's Gurgen Hovhannisyan in +91 kg last-8 match later on Thursday night.
Earlier, Jyoti Gulia had produced a scintillating performance to upset two-time world champion Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan and progressed into the quarter-finals of women's 51kg category.
The 2017 World Youth Champion Haryana pugilist Jyoti was clever with her footwork and showed great attacking display of boxing before outpunching experienced Kyzaibay 3-2. On the other hand, Bhagyabati had outclassed Russian opponent Anna Galimova 5-0 in the 75kg category.
Jyoti, Bhagyabati Kachari, and Deepak Kumar are the other Indians who will play their quarter-finals bouts on Thursday night.
The 2017 Youth World Champion Gulia will be up against Roman boxer Lacramioara Perijoc in 51kg while Baghyabati (75kg) will face a stiff challenge from world championship bronze medallist Naomi Graham of USA.
In the men's 52kg, Asian Championship silver medallist Deepak will play against Bulgaria's Darislav Vasilev.
Also, four Indian men made an exit with narrow defeats in the pre-quarters. Asian Championship silver medallist Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) went down fighting against Ukraine's Mykola Butsenko 3-2 while Ankit Khatana (75kg) lost to Viktar Dziashkevich of Belarus. Sachin Kumar (81kg) and Naveen Kumar (91kg) also suffered 3-2 losses against Armenia A's Gor Nersesyan and France's Wilfried Florentin respectively.
( With inputs from ANI )
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