Gaurav assures India of medal at World Championship

TIL Desk Sports/ Wild card Gaurav Bidhuri on Tuesday became only the fourth Indian boxer ever to secure himself a medal at the World Championships after defeating Tunisia’s Bilel Mhamdi to enter the semifinals of the mega-event here.

Gaurav prevailed in a split decision in the bantamweight (56kg) quarterfinal contest to make the last-four stage, becoming only the second from the country to do so in his debut world championship. The only other Indian to have achieved the feat was Vikas Krishan, in the 2011 edition.

Besides Vikas, Vijender Singh (2009) and Shiva Thapa (2015) have been the country’s other medallists at the marquee event of the sport. But they have all settled for bronze medals and it remains to be seen if Gaurav can better them on that. But there was slight disappointment as well for the contingent when Amit Phangal (49kg), another impressive Indian debutant in the event, bowed out in the quarterfinal stage.

The Asian Championships bronze-medallist went down to Olympic champion and second seed Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in a unanimous verdict, ending what has been a fine campaign for the 21-year-old.