World Boxing Championships: Indian boxers spend first day sparring with Argentines with no competitive bouts on schedule

Ekaterinburg: With no competitive action in store for them on the opening day, it was sparring with Argentine boxers that kept Team India busy in the men’s World Championships. India will open the campaign on Tuesday with Brijesh Yadav (81kg) taking on Poland’s Maleusz Goinski. [caption id=“attachment_5095841” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of India boxer Amit Panghal. AP[/caption] Asian Championships and Asian Games gold-medallist Amit Panghal (52kg), who has been seeded second and given a first-round bye, was among the three boxers who sparred with the Argentines in the morning. “Tomorrow we will be sparring with the Brazillians and the Swedes. Those sessions are lined up for Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Sanjeet (91kg),” India’s High Performance Director Santiago Nieva told PTI. Monday’s sparring sessions with the Argentines also featured Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) and Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg). Bisht has been seeded fifth and also got a first-round bye. The World Championship features more than 450 boxers from 87 countries. It was meant to be an Olympic qualifier but the administrative mess in the International Boxing Association (AIBA) prompted the International Olympic Committee to strip it of that status. The tournament will be contested in the revised eight weight categories (52kg, 57kg, 63kg, 69kg, 74kg, 81kg, 91kg, +91kg) earmarked for Tokyo 2020, instead of the traditional 10 divisions.