Strandja Memorial Tournament: Defending champion Amit Panghal gets first-round bye into quarter-finals of 49kg event

New Delhi: Asian Games gold-medallist Amit Panghal (49kg) on Thursday got a first-round bye into the quarter-finals of the 70th Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. Panghal, who is in pursuit of a second successive gold at the tournament, will be up against Ukraine’s Nazar Kurotchyn in the last-eight stage on Sunday. A win will assure him of a consecutive medal at the prestigious European event. [caption id=“attachment_4972621” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Amit Panghal. image credit: Twitter/@ioaindia[/caption] Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Naman Tanwar (91kg) was handed a bye into the pre-quarter-finals and he will face Poland’s Michal Soczynski in his opening bout on Saturday. Among the women, last edition’s silver-medallist Meena Kumari Devi (54kg) was given a direct entry into the quarter-finals, while Neeraj (60kg) got into the pre-quarter-finals in the draws that came out Thursday. World Championships bronze-medallist Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg), who is returning to top-flight action after recovering from a back injury, will be up against local favourite Emanuil Bogoev in the opening round on Friday. Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Gaurav Solanki (52kg) will face American Abraham Perez in his opening bout. Former Asian youth silver-medallist Ankush Dahiya (60kg) will start his campaign against Azerbaijan’s Sarkhan Aliyev, while former CWG silver-medallist Mandeep Jangra will square off against Ukraine’s Viktor Petrov. In the women’s draw, former world championships silver-medallist Sonia Lather (57kg) has Serbian Jelena Zekic to contend with in the first round, while former CWG bronze-medallist Pinki Rani (51kg) is to start off against Filipino Irish Magno. India had claimed a best-ever 11 medals in the 2018 edition of the tournament, two of them gold.