Six Indians get byes at Asian C’ship, Vikas seeded 2nd

Defending champion Shiva Thapa (56kg) was among the six Indians who were handed first-round byes while Asian Games bronze-medallist Vikas Krishan (75kg) was the only one to be seeded at second as the country made a winning start at the Asian Championships on Wednesday.

Manish Kaushik (60kg) was the lone Indian in action on Wednesday as he gloved up against Bangladesh’s M <g data-gr-id="22">Hossen</g> in the opening round. Kaushik thrashed his rival 3-0 in a one-sided fight to open the event on a winning note for India. He will take on China’s Chin Long on August 29. The rest of the contingent had an off day as they went through the draws, which were rolled out this morning. <g data-gr-id="25">The tournament</g> is a qualifying event for the World Championships scheduled in Doha in October. Among those who got byes and won’t be taking the ring before August 30 were Shiva, Vikas, previous edition’s <g data-gr-id="23">silver-medallist</g> L Devendro Singh (49kg), Madan Lal (52kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Kuldeep Singh (81kg).

Another silver-medallist from the last time, Mandeep Jangra (69kg) will open his campaign on August 28 against Vietnam’s Vien Ngoc Huynh. If he wins, the Commonwealth Games silver winner will be up against Japan’s <g data-gr-id="19">Ysauhiro</g> Suzuki in pre-quarters on August 30.

The next day, August 29 will have former Asian Games silver-medallist Manpreet Singh (91kg) starting his campaign against Sri Lanka’s Nuvan Sugeewa Sampath.