Tashkent, May 8 (PTI) Sachin Siwach (54kg) made a winning start to his maiden World Championships campaign with a facile victory, while two other Indian boxers bowed out of the competition here on Monday.
The 2021 World Youth Championships winner showcased his technical prowess to register a 5-0 unanimous decision against Serghei Novac of Moldova and cruise to the bantam weight pre-quarterfinals.
However, it was curtains for Govind Sahani (48kg) and Naveen Kumar (92kg). Both boxers lost by unanimous verdicts.
Sachin took charge of the proceedings from the word go as he relentlessly attacked Novac in the round of 32 bout.
Using his height advantage and long reach, the 23-year-old relied on a combination of punches to take the first round.
The second round followed a similar script as Sachin landed a flurry punches, the most impressive being a combination of a straight jab, a left and then a right hook. His defence was as strong as his attack as he danced around the ring, ducking his opponents punches.
Despite the first two rounds being ruled in his favour, Sachin did not hold back his punches in the final three minutes. He continued pummelling the hapless Maldovian with a range of punches, including the upper cut, to claim a comprehensive win.
He will face 2021 World Championships silver medallist Makhmud Sabyrkhan for a place in the quarterfinals.
Naveen, who was up against 2021 World Championships bronze medallist Enmanuel Reyes, was completely outplayed by the Spaniard.
He got a standing count in the very first round and never quite looked menacing or even comfortable in the ring as he struggled to connect his punches.
The experienced Reyes, who is seeded second, was technically far superior to the Indian and the Spanish boxer used that to dominate the bout and wrap up a comfortable win.
In the evening session, Sahani went down to top seed and World Championships bronze medallist Sakhil Alakhverdovi of Georgia in a high-paced bout.
He threw a lot of punches but like Naveen, Govind too struggled to connect his blows and was a tad bit slower than Alakhverdovi.
Sahani had lost to the same opponent at the same stage at the 2021 World Championships.