Sachin makes winning start on World Championships debut

A 2021 World youth champion in 56kg, Sachin Siwach Junior (54kg) registered a convincing 5-0 win over Moldovan Serghei Novac to advance to the last 16 of the World boxing championships in Tashkent on Monday.

Sachin’s victory in the round-of-32 bout enabled him to set up a pre-quarterfinal clash with top-seeded Worlds and Asian silver medallist Makhmud Sabyrkhan of Kazakhstan.

Southpaw Sachin, taller than his opponent, connected body and head shots from a long range to take the opening round 5-0 against Novac, who tried to close the gap and land a few on the target.

The Indian grew in confidence to exhibit more scoring shots from a distance and employed his fine defensive skills to dominate the second period as well.

Some impressive jabs and uppercuts helped Sachin dictate terms in the final round and make a winning start.

However, two other Indians, Asian bronze medallist Govind Sahani (48kg) and National champion Naveen Kumar (92kg), lost in the pre-quarterfinals.

Sahani was trounced 0-5 by top-seeded Worlds bronze medallist and European champion Sakhil Alakhverdovi of Georgia, while Naveen was outpunched 0-5 by second-seeded Worlds bronze medallist Enmanuel Reyes of Spain.