AGENCY
BAKU: Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar (64kg) clinched a hard-fought opening win but two other Indian boxers bowed out after losing in the first round of the AIBA World Olympic Qualification Tournament here.
Manoj defeated Puerto Rico’s Danielito Zorrila de la Rosa in the opening light welterweight (64kg) 2-1 to enter the second round where he will be up against second seed Mohamed Eslam Ahmed Aly of Egypt on Sunday.
“It was a brilliant performance by Manoj. Danielito was cautioned repeatedly for head-butting dangerously and it was to Manoj’s credit that he kept his composure. Especially in the third round, Manoj got his strategy perfectly right by fighting from the long range,” national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu told PTI. (PTI)