CWG 2018: Boxer Manoj Kumar advances to Round of 16 in men's 69kg

Gold Coast (Australia): Star boxer Manoj Kumar advanced to the round of 16 in men`s boxing 69 kilogram category after convincingly thrashing Osita Umeh of Nigeria 5-0 by unanimous verdict at the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday.

The 2010 CWG gold medallist dominated from the start, using the technique of keeping his guard down, and kept drawing Umeh towards himself at the Oxenford Studios here.

The first round witnessed Manoj using a few heavy right arm jabs to which the 19-year-old Nigerian hardly had any reply and it seemed like the 31-year-old Indian isn`t far from advancing to the next round.

Umeh started the second round with some good counter-punching, but Manoj used all his experience to block and keep his defence up. Towards the end, it turned out to be an easy outing for the 2016 South Asian Games gold medallist Indian.

Meanwhile, Indian cyclists finished on a disappointing note in all three qualifying events which they participated at the Commonwealth Games 2018, Gold Coast. In the men`s Team Sprint qualifying, the trio of Ranjit Singh, Sahil Kumar and SanurajSanandaraj finished at the penultimate seventh spot with an overall timing of 46.174 seconds. 

New Zealand and England will fight out for the gold medal in the event.