Wild card Gaurav Bidhuri, on Tuesday, became only the fourth Indian boxer ever to secure himself a medal at the World Championships after defeating Tunisia's Bilel Mhamdi to enter the semifinals of the mega-event in Hamburg.
Gaurav prevailed in a split decision in the bantamweight (56kg) quarter-final contest to make the last-four stage, becoming only the second from the country to do so in his debut world championship. The only other Indian to have achieved the feat was Vikas Krishan, in the 2011 edition.
Besides Vikas, Vijender Singh (2009) and Shiva Thapa (2015) have been the country's other medallists at the marquee event of the sport. But they have all settled for bronze medals and it remains to be seen if Gaurav can better them on that.
But there was slight disappointment as well for the contingent when Amit Phangal (49kg), another impressive Indian debutant in the event, bowed out in the quarter-final stage.
The Asian Championships bronze-medallist went down to Olympic champion and second seed Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan in a unanimous verdict, ending what has been a fine campaign for the 21-year-old.
NADA signs MoU to create more awareness on drugs
The National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to help create awareness about drugs among athletes.
"This memorandum is essentially meant to provide a convenient option for Indian athletes to know whether any drug sold in the Indian market contains any prohibited substance as per the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code," NADA said in a release.
"The system is expected to be in place in another three months. Thereafter, typing the brand name of any medicine in the website or app will indicate whether that medicine or drug is prohibited or not as per the anti-doping code."
NADA found that the Indian athletes always faced difficulty in understanding which drugs are prohibited for them.
