Olympic Qualifiers: Ankushita, Nishant seal quarter spots

Former world youth champion Ankushita Boro (60kg) and Nishant Dev (71kg) registered comfortable victories to reach quarter-finals of the second Boxing World Olympic Qualifiers in Bangkok on Wednesday.

National champion Arundhati Choudhary (66kg) also registered a convincing win to advance to the pre-quarterfinals after a win over Stephanie Pieneiro of Puerto Rico.

Boro was up against Asian champion Rimma Volossenko of Kazakhstan. But the Indian wasn't bothered by the stature of her opponent as she went for her punches from Round 1 and never really looked in trouble throughout the bout to earn a 4-1 verdict.

World championships bronze medallist Nishant was clinical in his 5-0 demolition of Thailand's Peerapat Yeasungnoen to reach the last eight stage.

Earlier in the day, Choudhary began her 66 kg campaign with a clinical round 1 against Pieneiro.

She was slightly conservative in round 2, consolidating her position before dominating the next round to get an unanimous 5-0 verdict in her favour.

Narender Berwal (+92kg) also put up a strong fight against Ecuador's Gerlon Gilmar Congo Chala but it wasn't enough to advance to the next round.

The 2022 Asian Games bronze winner started slow in round 1 and was then forced to catch up. He did well to impress three of the five judges with his punches in the second and third round of the round of 32 bout.

However, his efforts were not enough to overturn the overall deficit.

On Thursday, Sachin Siwach (57kg) will look to seal his quarterfinal berth against Batuhan Ciftci of Turkey.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Amit Panghal (51kg), Sanjeet (92kg) and Jaismine (women's 57kg) will start their campaign after having received a bye in the opening round. PTI ATK