New Delhi: National champion Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg) made a winning debut to advance to the second round of The International Boxing Association (AIBA) Men’s World Championships in Ekaterinburg, Russia on Friday. Negi had to work hard to achieve a 4-1 victory over Armenia’s Koryun Astoyan and set up a second round showdown with Jordan’s sixth seed Zeyad Eashash, who had got a first-round bye.
Negi started slow and became more aggressive as the first round progressed. The Indian then resorted to the tactic of staying low against his tall and muscular opponent to deliver his combination blows. Even though he retreated into a defensive mode in the third round and put up his guard against the Armenian pugilist, he managed to successfully land a flurry of punches at the very end to secure the win.
The 33-year-old Makran Cup silver medallist was the only Indian in action on Day 5 of the AIBA Men’s World Championships. He becomes the third Indian to win his first round bout at this prestigious tournament, joining Manish Kaushik (63kg) and Brijesh Yadav (81kg).
On Thursday, Kaushik notched up a convincing 5-0 win over Kyrgyzstan’s Argen Ullu Kadyrbek while Brijesh had dominated Poland’s Maleusz Goinski a couple of days earlier. On Saturday, Asian Games champion Amit Panghal (52kg) and Asian Championships silver medallist Ashish Kumar (75kg) will begin their medal quests against Taipei’s Tu Po-Wei and China’s Tanglatihan Tuohetaerbieke respectively after receiving byes in the opening round.
