New Delhi, Oct 24 (IANS) Aditya became the first Indian male boxer to be assured of a medal after he defeated Tommaso Orlando of Italy 5:0 to reach the men’s 55kg semifinal in the 2026 World Boxing U-19 Championships in Budva, Montenegro, on Saturday.

In the semifinals, Aditya will face Nihat Gasimov of Azerbaijan.

Megha Sheokand (women’s 80kg) and Prachi Tokas (women’s 80+ kg) have already reached the semifinals of their respective weight categories to be assured of a medal.

In the late evening session on Friday, Mausam Suhag lost his Men’s 65kg quarterfinal by a 0:5 margin against Yashua Flemming of England, Aman Dev went down 0:5 against Georgia’s Shalva Beridze in men’s 50kg, while Lakshu suffered a 0:5 loss against Marley Mcnealy of USA.

Earlier on Friday, Megha Sheokand became the second Indian to be assured of a medal in the ongoing 2026 World Boxing U-19 Championships after she defeated Turkey’s Melisa Eroglu 5:0 to reach the women’s 80kg semifinals.

Prachi Tokas had assured India of its first medal in the women’s 57kg category. Asian U-19 champion Prachi also kept her hopes of a medal alive as she registered a dominant win over Alie Chartier of Canada.

Prachi dominated both rounds against Chartier, who got one count in the first and two in the second before the Indian was awarded the bout by RSC.

A day before, she had outplayed Samoa’s Kealey Perez to reach the semifinals. In the quarterfinals on late Tuesday evening, Tokas dominated all three rounds against Perez, who had won the gold medal in the 80kg at the U19 World Boxing Futures Cup in Bangkok, Thailand, earlier this year.

Earlier, Himanshi went down 1:4 against Ellen Joyce of Ireland in the women’s 48kg pre-quarterfinals.

On Friday night, Anshika’s challenge in the women’s 75kg category ended in the pre-quarterfinals after she lost by RSC against China’s Shengjie Gong.

--IANS

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