Commonwealth Games 2018, Gold Coast: Boxers Amit Panghal, Naman Tanwar enter quarter-finals

Indian boxers Amit Panghal and Naman Tanwar on Friday advanced to the quarter-finals after notching up comprehensive wins in their opening bouts of the Commonwealth Games here.

Gold Coast: Indian boxers Amit Panghal (49kg) and Naman Tanwar (91kg) on Friday advanced to the quarter-finals after notching up comprehensive wins in their opening bouts of the Commonwealth Games here.

Tanwar defeated Tanzania's Haruna Mhando in a lopsided unanimous verdict to make the last-eight stage in the afternoon session.

In the evening session, Amit got the better of Ghana's Tetteh Sulemanu in another one-sided bout that ended in judges ruling unanimously in the Indian's favour.

The 19-year-old Tanwar, making his debut at the Games, is a bronze-medallist from the World Youth Championships.

He had defeated reigning Asian silver-medallist Sumit Sangwan in the trials to make the squad.

Amit, on the other hand, is chasing a third successive international gold medal, having claimed top finishes at the India Open and the Strandja Memorial Tournament before comeing here.

Earlier, 2010 CWG gold-medallist Manoj Kumar had won his opening bout to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the welterweight 69kg category. 

For India, weightlifters Sanjitha Chanu and Deepak Lather clinched a Gold and a Bronze respectively, taking the country's tally in the overall medal count to 4. India has already won four medals in weightlifting and the number can go to five as boxer Amit Phangal on Friday beat Tetteh Sulemanu (Ghana) in men's 46-49-kg Round of 16 in unanimous verdict. Amit Kumar thus became the second Indian boxer after Naman Tanwar to reach the quarter-finals. Like Tanwar, all five judges unanimously declared Phangal a winner with a 5-0 verdict in his favour. (Judge 1: 30-26, Judge 2: 30-26, Judge 3: 30-27, Judge 4: 30-27, Judge 5: 30-25)

On Thursday, weightlifters S Mirabai Chanu and Gururaja sparkled to deliver a Gold and a Silver, respectively, while the table tennis teams and the badminton teams advanced to the knockouts. In another good news, Indian women's hockey team thrashed their Malaysian rivals 4-1 in the Group A match on Friday. The India side had suffered a shocking loss to Wales which was a wake-up call on the opening day of the 21st edition of the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday.

(With PTI inputs)