Jai Bhagwan held his nerves to beat Eric Donovan of Ireland 11-6 in the third round and storm into the pre-quarterfinals of the AIBA World Championship at Milan on Friday.
The Asian Championship silver-medallist was down 1-4 in the first round and was trailing 3-5 in the second. But in the final round, he conceded just one point and scored eight to emerge winner.
Speaking to HT, Bhagwan said, “I started off on a defensive note, but when I couldn't score much in the first two rounds, I went all-out and played my natural game.”
Chief national coach GS Sandhu said, “Bhagwan had earlier lost to Donovan in the European GP, so we devised a strategy to go for counterattacks. It didn't work and Donovan scored three points in the first minute of the opening round. We changed the strategy and went into attack mode from second round onwards.
Earlier, Nanao Singh (48kg) defeated Mamishzade Elvin of Azerbaijan in a one-sided affair (21-6). Nanao, along with Vijender (75kg), Dinesh (81kg) and Manpreet (91kg), are in the second round.