Awais, Sanaullah take giant leap towards World Championships

KARACHI: Pakistan’s experienced boxers Awais Ali Khan and Sanaullah took a giant step towards qualifying for the World Championship when they beat their respective rivals to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Asian Boxing Championship in Tashkent.

Awais defeated Mohammad Alyazouri of Jordon 5-0 in an enthralling fight on Tuesday in the 81 kg pre-quarter-final.

“It was a tough fight but Awais played really well,” Pakistan coach Arshad Hussain told ‘The News’ from Tashkent.

Awais will fight in the quarter-final on Wednesday (today) with the winner of the fight between boxers from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Awais told ‘The News’ it was a tough fight. “My opponent was very good but I played with a plan and succeeded,” Awais told this correspondent.

On Monday night, in the 91kg pre-quarter-final, Sanaullah knocked out NJ Namal Jayaweera of Sri Lanka in the second round to qualify for the quarter-finals.

He will face Gurbanov Jakhon of Tajikistan in the quarter-final on Wednesday (today).

As many as 14 boxers are competing in the 91kg competitions.

The top six boxers in each weight category will qualify for the World Championship, which is to be held later this year in Hamburg, Germany.

Pakistan’s Gul Zeb was scheduled to face Wei Liu of China in the pre-quarter-final late on Tuesday night. He beat Ahmed Harare of Palestine in the preliminaries on Monday.

Mohibullah, Suleman Baloch, Tanvir Ahmad and Syed Asif Ali are out of the event in which over 200 pugilists from around 29 nations are competing for 60 tickets for the World Championship.  This is after a long time that national pugilists are featuring in any international event.