India's Narender enters pre-quarters at AIBA World Boxing Championships

India's Narender extended his winning run at the 2021 AIBA men's World Boxing Championships in Belgrade to enter pre-quarterfinals in the super heavyweight category on Thursday.

Narender defeated Sierra Leone's Mohamed Kendeh in the round-of-32 match.

Both the boxers started the game with a cautious approach and maintained the distance during the early part of the bout.

However, the 26-year-old Indian hit some timely punches and took charge of the game. Having tilted the momentum to his side, Narender started the final round aggressively and landed some heavy blows which unsettled the opponent as the referees had to stop the contest and declare Narender winner.

Later in the night, Rohit Mor (57kg) and Akash Sangwan (67kg) will be in action as they will look to make their way into the Last-16 stage at the prestigious tournament, which has been witnessing strong competition in presence of 650 top boxers from more than 100 countries playing across 13 weight categories.

While Rohit, who hails from Delhi, will take on Alen Rahmic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the featherweight category, Akash will square off against German pugilist Daniel Krotter.

In the matches played late on Wednesday night, Govind Sahani registered an impressive 3-2 victory against Ecuador's Ortiz Arias in an intensely fought 48kg opening round match.

However, Lakshya Chahar (86kg) and Varinder Singh (60kg) ended their campaigns in the opening round.

( With inputs from ANI )