Boxers Deepak Bhoria (51kg), Mohammed Hussamudin (57kg) and Nishant Dev (71kg) ensured India of its best-ever haul of three medals by storming into the semi-finals of the men’s World Championships here on Wednesday.

The quarter-final wins mean the three pugilists will take home at least a bronze medal each.

India’s previous best show came in the 2019 edition when Amit Panghal clinched a silver and Manish Kaushik grabbed a bronze medal.

Kicking off the proceedings for India, Deepak defeated Nurzhigit Diushebaev of Kyrgyzstan by a 5-0 verdict to continue his scintillating run in the flyweight category, which will feature at the Paris Olympics.

Such was the Indian’s domination that the referee was forced to give Diushebaev two standing counts in the latter stages of the bout.

Fighting from a distance, Deepak looked for opportunities to land clean and accurate punches. Trailing 0-5, Diushebaev started the second round on an aggressive note but Deepak put up a solid defence and counter attacked with combination of punches.

One such onslaught led the referee to give Diushebaev his first eight count. Having taken the opening two rounds, Deepak was more defensive in the final three minutes. He boxed smartly, landing jabs whenever he got the opportunity. Two-time Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Hussamundin then had to toil hard as he eked out a 4-3 split decision win in a close fight against J. Diaz Ibanez of Bulgaria. The first round was fought on an even keel with Hussamudin edging past the Bulgarian fifth seed 3-2 in the quarter finals.

As the seconds ticked by, Hussamudin became more confident and started dominating the proceedings. He landed heavy blows to take the final two rounds.

Nishant knocked out Cuba’s Jorge Cuellar by an unanimous verdict. The 22-year-old, who is the reigning national champion, was relentless and kept attacking the Cuban throughout the nine minutes.

Nishant was quicker than his opponent and used that to land a flurry of punches on Cuellar’s face.

He also used body blows to tire out his opponent and book a place in the last four of the light middleweight category.

India’s previous medal winners at the men’s World Championships include Vijender Singh (bronze, 2009), Vikas Krishan (bronze, 2011), Shiva Thapa (bronze, 2015), Gaurav Bidhuri (bronze, 2017), Panghal (silver, 2019), Kaushik (bronze, 2019) and Akash Kumar (bronze, 2021).