Nishant Dev continued his dominant show to enter the men’s 71kg pre-quarterfinals of the first World Olympic Boxing Qualifier after beating Georgia’s Madiev Eskerkhan by a unanimous 5-0 margin in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
Dev, the 2023 World Championships bronze medallist, on the back of a convincing win in the last bout, and looked even more lethal as he dominated the opponent throughout the bout. Tokyo Olympics quarter-finalist Eskerkhan looked clueless most of the time against Dev’s attack and tried his best to recover in the second round of the bout but the Indian denied him any chance of comeback in a match which eventually ended as a one-sided affair.
Nishant will play the last-16 bout on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the youth world champion Ankushita Boro (66kg) and national champion Sanjeet (92kg) suffered contrasting defeats in the opening round. While Ankushita went down fighting 2-3 against Sonvico Emilie of France in a hard-fought match, Sanjeet lost 0-5 to Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan.
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, at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Between 45 and 51 boxers will qualify through the second World Qualification Tournament, to be held in Bangkok from May 23 to June 3.
India have already secured four quotas for Paris 2024 with Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti (54kg), Parveen Hooda (57kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) confirming their berths with impressive performances at the Asian Games.