CHENNAI: Boxer Nishant Dev was the lone bright spark from India in the 1st World Qualification Tournament earlier this year (March 3-11) in Italy. He had narrowly missed out on an Olympic quota then.
While reflecting on that near miss, the 71kg pugilist from Haryana had vowed to complete his task in the next qualifier — 2nd World Qualification Tournament in Bangkok, which is currently underway. After two convincing victories, the 23-year-old is on the right path to fulfil his goal.
On Tuesday, Nishant required just over two minutes to dispatch his opponent (he recorded his second win in the process) and book a spot in the pre-quarterfinals.
Mongolia’s Otgonbaatar Byamba-Erdeneto stood helpless against the Indian as the latter was aggressive from the word go. Nishant threw a flurry of punches to force a standing count in the very first minute. He followed that up with a jab and hook that led to another standing count. In the end, the referee had no choice but to award a win by RSC (Referee Stopped the Contest) verdict.
Nishant will now take on Thailand’s Peerapat Yeasungnoen for a place in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. There are five quotas on offer in Nishant’s weight division. Later, Sachin Siwach (57kg) also won to enter the last 16. He beat Denmark’s Jensen Frederik Lundgaard 5-0. Like Nishant, Sachin produced similar intensity from the start and captured the opening round. From then on, he continued to control the proceedings and eventually got the votes from all the five judges.
Abhinash Jamwal (63.5kg), however, lost a close bout in the Round of 32 meeting against Colombia’s Jose Manuel Viafara Fory. Abhinash did very well in the final round to force a tie (all five judges). As per the rules, the judges were asked to vote again and all of them voted in Fory’s favour.