Italy, Mar 5
Deepak Bhoria, Narender Berwal, Jaismine Lamboria crashed out in the opening round at the first World Boxing Qualification Tournament for the Paris Olympics in Busto Arsizio, Italy
India has sent nine boxer boxers to the world Olympic boxing qualifiers.
Deepak bronze medalist from the 2023 World Championships, suffered a shock exit after a 3-2 split decision loss against Azerbaijani boxer Nijat Huseynov, a two-time under-22 European champion.
The first two rounds saw a tight contest as both boxers went on the offensive from the get-go. However, it was the young pugilist from Azerbaijan who made the most of his swiftness and edged Deepak by identical 3-2 scorelines in both rounds.
The Indian came out all guns blazing in the final round and delivered some quality blows. He won the round 4-1 but it wasn’t enough as Nijat won the bout. Narender went down to Germany’s Nelvie Tiafack, the 2022 European champion, by a 0 -5 unanimous decision The German dominated the first round to clinch it 4-1. Narender tried to cover lost ground in the next round but Nelvie edged past with a 3-2 win. The Indian went all out in the third round but a solid defence from his rival foiled all his efforts.
Later in the day, Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Jaismine Lamboria bowed out of the women’s 60kg after a 5-0 loss against Japan’s Ayaka Taguchi. On Tuesday, six-time Asian Championships medalist Shiva Thapa will face reigning world champion Ruslan Abdullaev of Uzbekistan in the opening round of the men’s 63.5kg category while World Championships bronze medalist Nishant Dev will go up against Lewis Richardson of Great Britain in the 71kg division.
Former youth world champion Ankushita Boro (66kg) will face Sonvico Emilie of France while national champion Sanjeet Kumar (92kg) will square off against Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
World Championships bronze medalist Mohammed Hussamuddin (57kg) received a bye in his first round and will be in action on Friday in the round of 32.
The youth world champion Ankushita Boro (66kg) will face Sonvico Emilie of France while national champion Sanjeet (92kg) will square off against Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
The first World Olympic boxing qualification tournament is hosting over 590 boxers and will offer a total of 49 quotas, including 28 for men and 21 for women.
Between 45 and 51 boxers will qualify through the second World Qualification Tournament, to be held in Bangkok from May 23 to June 3, as the countries who have not qualified an athlete for a specific weight category through their continental qualification tournament or the first World Qualification Tournament will be eligible to enter one athlete per weight category.
