Boxing Worlds: Amit Panghal, Manish Kaushik enter semis, assured of medals

Ekaterinburg (Russia): India's Manish Kaushik (63kg) and Amit Panghal (52kg) on Wednesday reached the semifinals in their respective weight categories and thus assured themselves of a medal each at the ongoing men's World Boxing Championships here.

India have won only four medals in the history of the Worlds thus far and this will be the first time that more than one boxer from the country will be winning a medal in the same edition.

Second-seeded Panghal, who is the reigning Asian champion, beat the Philippines' Carlo Paalam 4-1 in the quarterfinals. Commonwealth Games silver medallist Kaushik, on the other hand, beat Brazil's Wanderson de Oliveira 5-0 by a unanimous decision.

India have never won more than a bronze medal in any of the men's World Championships before.

Panghal had defeated Paalam in the Asian Games semifinals last year.

In the last-four stage, the Haryana-pugilist will be up against Kazakhstan's Saken Bibossinov, who stunned Armenia's European gold-medallist and sixth seed Artur Hovhannisyan in his quarterfinal showdown.

Panghal was a quarterfinalist in the last edition of the World Championship, losing a fiercely-contested bout to the then defending champion Hasanboy Dusmatov in the 49kg category.