World Boxing Championship: Indian boxers aim for bigger medal haul

Indian boxers will be looking for a good performance at the 19th World Boxing Championships starting Friday. Shiva Thapa and Vikas Krishan will be among India's best bets to better both the colour and number of medals at this prestigious event.

Placed joint 49th in the all-time medal count, India have a bronze each to show for from the 2009, 2011 and the 2015 World Championships.

Shiva (2015), Vikas (2011) and the now-professional Vijender Singh (2009) are the only ones to have been on the podium of the prestigious event, which doubles up as an Olympic qualifier in alternate editions.

For this edition, an eight-strong team has made the cut through the Asian Championships held in Tashkent earlier this year.

"Our build-up has been fantastic. We had a good Asian Championship where the boys won two silver and two bronze medals and finished third overall," the team's Swedish coach Santiago Nieva said.