India sealed yet another spot at the Boxing World Championships when Kavinder Bisht secured a walkover in a box-off at the Asian Boxing Championships being held in Tashkent, reported PTI on Sunday.
Bisht was supposed to face off against Malaysia’s Salam Abdul Kasim for the sixth and final spot but his opponent withdrew, automatically handing the spot to the Indian in the 52-kg category. The top six boxers from each weight category in the Asian event will qualify for the World Championships in Germany scheduled from August 25.
Kavinder had won his pre-quarterfinal bout against Indonesia’s Aldoms Suguro comfortably but had gone down by the same margin of five point to none to Uzbekistan’s Jasurbek Latipov in the next round.
Bisht became the fifth boxer from India to qualify after the bronze medal holders Vikas Krishan (75kg) and Amit Phangal (49kg) and silver winners Shiva Thapa (60kg) and Sumit Sangwan (91kg).
A total of four medals have gone to India and they are in third spot in the 2017 Asian Boxing Championships table after Uzbekistan (four gold medals) and Kazakhstan (one gold, one silver and four bronze medals).