new delhi sky above me earth below me and fire within me that was indian boxer amit panghals first tweet after landing in ekaterinburg russia for the ongoing world championships the fire that panghal talked about has not only inspired him and teammate manish kaushik to advance to the semifinals of the worlds but also script a historic chapter for indian boxing for the first time india are assured of more than one medal at the event it will be also their maiden worlds medalsbefore the duos brilliant effort india had never secured more than one bronze in a single edition of the championship the winners of past editions include vijender singh 2009 vikas krishan 2011 shiva thapa 2015 and gaurav bidhuri 2017 if both panghal and kaushik or either of the two manage to reach the final it would mark a momentous occasion in countrys boxing history that apart two bronze from the worlds is no mean feat considering the high quality of competitionin the quarters reigning asian games champion panghal defeated filipino carlo paalam 41 in the 52kg category while gold coast cwg silver medallist kaushik literally blew away the challenge of brazils wanderson de oliveira in a unanimous 50 verdict in the 63kg division in the semis on thursday the diminutive rohtak boy panghal will be up against kazakhstans saken bibossinov who pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the event by defeating armenias european gold medallist artur hovhannisyan in his quarterfinal boutbhiwani boy kaushik on the other hand will be challenged by his weight divisions top seed andy gomez cruz the cuban who outclassed russias ilia popov in his quarterfinal showdown was the light welterweight 64kg gold medallist at the 2017 worlds and is a twotime pan american games championhowever it was curtains for indias other two promising pugilists sanjeet 91kg and kavinder singh bisht 57kg who lost their respective quarterfinal bouts in contrasting fashion while sanjeet lost 14 to ecuadors julio castillo torres bisht an asian championships silver winner was outclassed by reigning cwg champion peter mcgrail of england 05earlier it was panghal who set the ball rolling for india by defeating paalam the pocket dynamo as panghal is famously known in boxing circles was defensive in his approach in the opening round which saw the indian trailing however he changed his approach in the next two rounds and went on an offensive i saw no point in defending so i started attacking him more in the next rounds i played according to my strength and didnt allow him to counterattack some of my punches connected well i understand that this is the worlds and we have to be aggressive panghal told toi from ekaterinburgtalking about his semis opponent panghal said he has seen his videos on the youtube and has strategized according to his weakness i have fought him previously so i have a fair idea about his boxing i am going to continue with my same fearless and aggressive approach against