Panghal sails into pre-quarters

The second seed, who is also an Asian Games gold medallist, thrashed his rival 5-0 to sail into the pre-quarterfinals of the showpiece competition. The Indian had been given a first-round bye. Sharp as ever with his attacks, Panghal dominated Po-Wei from the first round itself to notch up a comfortable victory.

The boxer from Taipei spent most of his time trying to avoid any engagement, prompting the referee to caution him against the passive approach. Panghal, who was a quarter-finalist in the last edition in Hamburg, showed trademark aggression and pace and that was something Po-Wei just couldn’t cope with.

The Indian Army man has been in tremendous form for more than a year now. Even a change of weight category, from 49kg to 52kg, has had little impact on his performance. In fact, his Asian Championship gold earlier this year came within a couple of months of him going up to 52kg.