Sachin Siwach pulls off knockout win to enter quarter-final; Manish Kaushik, Gaurav Bidhuri also through in boxing nationals

Pune: It was smooth sailing for the favourites with former youth world champion Sachin Siwach (52kg) pulling off a knockout win to enter the quarterfinals of the senior men’s national boxing championships on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_4750991” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Getty[/caption] The 19-year-old Sachin, competing for the Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), landed the knockout blow in the third round of the second-round contest against Chandigarh’s Mansoor Ahmed. Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Manish Kaushik (60kg), who is competing for the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB), also had little trouble putting it past Arunachal Pradesh’s Hongrang Kongkang on points to make the last-eight stage. Asian youth silver-medallist and Ulaanbaatar Cup gold-medallist Ankush Dahiya (60kg) was also in the last-eight after a 5-0 win over Chandigarh’s Rohit Kumar. Dahiya is representing the RSPB team. In the bantamweight 56kg category, world championships bronze-medallist out-classed Madhya Pradesh’s Vivek Jha to enter the quarters. Gaurav Bidhuri, who was left bitter at being denied trials for both the Commonwealth and Asian Games, is aiming to put himself in contention with a strong show. Former national champion Madan Lal also made the 56kg quarters with a 5-0 win over Meghalya’s Jyrwa Justerwell.