In a big blow to India, defending bronze-medallist and fifth seed Shiva Thapa (60kg) was on Monday forced out of the 19th World Championships owing to food poisoning and high fever, PTI reported.
The 24-year-old three-time Asian Championships medallist was to take on Georgia’s Otar Eranosyan in his second-round contest after getting an opening round bye.
“He was throwing up all night on Sunday and this morning, he was running high fever. He couldn’t have fought, his body was not holding up. We tried to do everything but he was very weak,” an Indian team official was quoted as saying.
The Indian could not turn up at the arena due to high fever.
The Assam-boxer, a two-time Olympian, was among the best medal hopes for India and had been in good form coming into the tournament.
He had won a silver medal at the Asian meet, his third successive medal at the continental championships, followed by a gold medal at an invitational tournament in Czech Republic.
Manoj Kumar ousted
Also making an exit from the tournament was Manoj Kumar (69kg). The former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist went down in a split verdict to fourth-seeded Venezuelan Gabriel Maestre Perez.
Perez had won a bronze in the 2013 World Championships and he is also a Pan-American Games gold-medallist.
The 31-year-old Manoj gave it his all and matched up to his higher-ranked rival quite well but could not get the judges’ nod.