World Boxing Championships: Amit Panghal among three Indians to get bye into pre-quarterfinals

Asian champion Amit Panghal (52kg) was among the three other Indian boxers who have received a bye into the pre-quarterfinals of the World Boxing Championships, which began on Monday. 

Besides second-seeded Amit, Asian silver-winning duo of fifth-seeded Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) and seventh-seeded Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Sanjeet (91kg) have also booked their place in the last-16 after receiving the byes.

Panghal and Bisht made a quarter-final finish in the 2017 edition of the tournament in Hamburg, while  Ashish and Sanjeet are all set make their debut. 

India will now kickstart their campaign at the prestigious tournament on Tuesday when Brijesh Yadav take on Maleusz Goinski of Poland in the opening bout of the 81kg category. 

The 2019 World Boxing Championships, which is featuring more than 450 boxers from 87 countries, was meant to be an Olympic qualifier but the International Olympic Committee decided to strip the tournament of that status following the administrative mess in the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

The prestigious boxing tournament will see the revised eight weight categories--52kg, 57kg, 63kg, 69kg, 74kg, 81kg, 91kg, +91kg-- instead of the traditional 10 categories.

Meanwhile, Manish Kaushik (63kg), Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) are the other Indian boxers who will compete in the event in their respective categories.