Indian Boxer Shiva Thapa ‘Punch Out’ Pakistan’s Suleiman Baloch
Indian boxer Shiva Thapa made a great start to his campaign at the Commonwealth Games, defeating Pakistan’s Suleiman Baloch to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the 63.5kg. Thapa won the one-sided match 5-0 to advance to the last-16 of the Welter Weight Category (Commonwealth Games 2022)
Thapa, a five-time Asian Championship medalist, was technically much better than Baloch and played a powerful punch. The former World Championship bronze medalist showed tremendous agility inside the ring. At one point baloch even went ahead to punch him, but Thapa backed away from the agility and the Pakistani boxer fell.
Meanwhile, Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj clocked 54.68 seconds to advance to the semi-finals of the men’s 100m backstroke event. Natraj, 21, from Bengaluru, was the third fastest swimmer in his heats and the fifth fastest swimmer overall.
If he could repeat his best of 53.77 seconds, he would have been at the top of the heat. South Africa’s Peter Koje finished top with a time of 53.91 seconds. Sajan Prakash and first-timer Kushagra Rawat could not make it to the semi-finals in their respective categories.
Prakash finished eighth in the heat, clocking 25.01 seconds in the men’s 50m butterfly. The top 16 swimmers have reached the semi-finals. Kushagra finished last in his heats in the men’s 400m freestyle with a time of 3:57.45 seconds. Kushagra and Prakash will now present the challenge in the second category. Prakash will land in men’s 100 and 200m butterfly while Kushagra will land in men’s 1500m freestyle and 200m freestyle
At the same time, the Indian men’s and women’s table tennis teams started with a win, defeating Barbados and South Africa 3-0 respectively. In the Group-3 match against Barbados, the team of Harmeet Desai and G Sathiyan defeated Kevin Farley and Tyre Knight 11-9, 11-9, 11-4 while the experienced Sharath Kamal defeated Ramon Maxwell 11-5, 11-3, 11-3 in less than 15 minutes. Sathiyan defeated Knight 11-4, 11-4, 11-5 to seal India’s victory.
