Former youth world champion Sakshi Chaudhary (57kg) stunned Asian silver-medallist and fourth seed Nilawan Techasuep of Thailand to enter the quarter-finals of the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Jeddah on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old prevailed in a split verdict against the Asian Games bronze-medallist in an engrossing bout. She will next be up against Korea’s Im Aeji on March 9. There was more good news for the Indian contingent as Simranjit Kaur won her 60kg bout against Kazakhstan’s Rimma Volossenko via a unanimous 5-0 decision.
Making the semi-finals would assure Sakshi of a spot in the Tokyo Olympics. The opening round was fought on even keel for most part but Sakshi managed to be ahead of her fancied rival in a 4:1 split verdict.
Techasuep came out all guns blazing in the second round and caught Sakshi off-guard with a barrage of combination straight punches. The Indian was pushed to the backfoot by the aggressive Thai, whose left jab was particularly eye-catching.
But the judges ruled in Sakshi’s favour in a 3-2 second round verdict. In the final three minutes, Saskhi’s counter-attacks proved enough to trump Techasuep’s consistent aggression.
On Tuesday, the seasoned duo of Gaurav Solanki (57kg) and Ashish Kumar (75kg) advanced to the pre-quarter-finals in the men’s draw.
Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Solanki defeated two-time Kyrgyz national champion Akylbek Esenbek Uulu, while Asian Championship silver-medallist Ashish got the better of Taiwan’s Kan Chia-Wei. Ashish will square off against Kyrgyzstan’s Omurbek Bekzhigit Uulu, who has been seeded fourth.
Solanki, whose CWG gold was in the 52kg division, will be up against top-seeded Uzbek Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov, who got a bye into the second round. Mirzakhalilov is the reigning world champion in this weight category besides being a gold-medallist at the 2018 Asian Games as well as the Asian Championships.
