Ekaterinburg (Russia), Sep 14 (PTI) Asian champion Amit Panghal (52kg) began his quest for a World Championship medal with a resounding win over Chinese Taipei's Tu Po-Wei in his opening bout of the marquee event here on Saturday.

The second-seeded 23-year-old, who is also an Asian Games gold-medallist, thrashed his rival 5-0 to move into the pre-quarterfinals of the world showpiece. The Indian had been given a first-round bye.

Sharp as ever with his attacks, Panghal dominated Po-Wei from the first round itself to notch up a comfortable win. The boxer from Taipei spent most of his time trying to avoid any engagement, prompting the referee to caution him against the passive approach.

A quarterfinalist in the last edition of the World Championship in Hamburg, Panghal's trademark aggression and pace was something that Po-Wei just couldn't cope with.

The Indian Army-man, who lost to the then depending champion Hasanboy Dusmatov in the quarterfinals in 2017, has been in tremendous form for more than a year now.

Even a change of weight category, from 49kg to 52kg, has had little impact on his performance.

In fact, his Asian Championship gold earlier this year came within a couple of months of him going up to 52kg.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)