India’s stars Amit Panghal, Shiva Thapa and Ashish Kumar opened their campaigns with successes at the Alexis Vastine Memorial Tournament
The first edition of the Alexis Vastine Memorial Tournament opened with eleven contests in Nantes, France where the Indian boxing team amazed. Amit Panghal, Shiva Thapa and Satish Kumar all won their opening contests in the Alexis Vastine Memorial Tournament which was launched to remember the previous French boxing star’s greatness.
The Indian national team is in a long European boxing tour and the new French international competition is part of their program. The President of the Boxing Federation of India Mr. Ajay Singh and their management decided to send their elite national team to Europe to prepare well to the Tokyo Olympic Games and to the 2021 World Olympic Boxing Qualifying Event.
India’s Amit Panghal claimed gold medal at the Jakarta 2018 Asian Games and also at the Bangkok 2019 ASBC Asian Boxing Championships. He continued his impressive competition series with a silver medal at the Yekaterinburg 2019 AIBA World Boxing Championships. India’s top flyweight (52kg) boxer met with United States’ 20-year-old Anthony Herrera in the first day of boxing in Nantes. Panghal enjoyed his return to the world of boxing but he had a tough contest as first against the US talent. The final verdict was split decision in the favour of Amit Panghal who had a great return to the world of boxing.
India’s next boxer in action was Shiva Thapa who claimed bronze medal at the Doha 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships and gold at the Amman 2013 ASBC Asian Boxing Championships. The two-time Olympian Thapa is in hard position as his teammate Manish Kaushik has qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games at the lightweight (63kg). Thapa did not give up his boxing career and spent the recent months with hard trainings. The 27-year-old boxer had to face in the first day of boxing with Netherlands’ European Games bronze medallist Enrico La Cruz. Thapa used his excellent footwork in their meeting and eliminated his Dutch opponent in Nantes.
Ashish Kumar was involved to the Indian elite national team one and half year ago and quickly achieved silver medal at the Bangkok 2019 ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships. The Indian middleweight (75kg) boxer has been preparing to the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Alexis Vastine Memorial Tournament is a good project for him on that road. The Indian boxer used his strong punches to beat Unites States’ AIBA Youth World Champion Delante Johnson who competes in that weight class this time.
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