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Vikas, Shiva in; Devendro dropped for Asian C�ships

By The Assam Tribune

NEW DELHI, April 10: Some established names and a couple of rookies made for an interesting Indian boxing squad picked for the April-May Asian Championships in which two-time medallist L Devendro Singh could not find a place.

World bronze-medallists Shiva Thapa (60kg) and Vikas Krishan (75kg), alongwith former Commonwealth gold-medallist Manoj Kumar (69kg), were expectedly selected for the April 30 to May 7 event in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The continental showpiece is a qualifying event for the World Championships later this year.

Making a comeback is former Asian Olympic qualifiers� gold-medallist Sumit Sangwan, who last competed in the 2016 Rio Games qualifiers in June. He has jumped from light heavyweight (81kg) to heavyweight (91kg) and this would be his first competitive outing in the new weight category.

Sangwan was forced to skip the National Championships in December last year after sustaining a cut above his eye during the trials. The greenhorns in the team are Asian youth silver-winner Ashish Kumar (64kg) and Kavinder Singh (52kg), who managed to upstage Devendro in the trials. Both the boxers will be making their senior international debut in Tashkent.

Kavinder and Ashish were quarterfinalists at the National Championships, where the former had been forced to give a walkover after injuring himself in the pre-quarters. Ashish is the cousin of former Commonwealth Games and Asian bronze-medallist Jai Bhagwan.

The squad: Amit Panghal (49kg), Kavinder Singh (52kg), Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg), Shiva Thapa (60kg), Ashish Kumar (64kg), Manoj Kumar (69kg), Vikas Krishan (75kg), Manish Panwar (81kg), Sumit Sangwan (91kg), Satish Kumar (+91kg). � PTI

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