Vikas, Amit advance; Shiva, Manoj bow out of Strandja Memorial

The seasoned Vikas Krishan and the fast-rising Amit Panghal advanced to the quarterfinals of the 69th Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament for men and women, here today.
Former world and Asian Games medallist Vikas (75kg), who is making a comeback after recovering from a hand injury, defeated Morocco's Amer Gnifid to make the last-eight stage.
It was a thoroughly nuanced performance by the former Asian silver-medallist, who relied on sharp counter-attacks to outwit his rival.
World Championships quarter-finalist Amit (49kg), a gold-medallist from last month's India Open, defeated a Mauritian in his last-16 stage bout, getting the better of Sharvin Kumar.

Also advancing to the quarterfinals was Manish Panwar (81kg), who defeated a Moroccan in Mohammed Amin.
However, it was early ouster for veteran Manoj Kumar (69kg), a former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, and world and Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (60kg).

The 31-year-old Manoj went down to Morocco's Abdelkabir Bellassek in his pre-quarterfinal bout, which was also his first of the tournament.
Later in the evening session, Shiva lost an evenly-contested bout to Kazakhstan's Adilet Kurmatov. The Indian was the more attacking of the two but went down in a split verdict.
India are assured of four medals so far in the tournament courtesy women boxers -- Seema Punia (+81kg), Saweety Boora (75kg), Mena Kumari Devi (54kg) and Bhagyabati Kachari (81kg).

While Saweety and Meena won their quarterfinal contests, Seema and Bhagyabati got byes.