It was a perfect start to the proceedings for India at the Asian Olympic Boxing Qualifiers with the experienced M Suranjoy Singh (52kg) and young gun Sumit Sangwan (81kg) notching up contrasting wins in their opening bouts in Astana, Kazakhstan on Thursday.
Suranjoy, a Commonwealth Games gold-medallist and Asian Games bronze-medallist, beat Shin Dongmyung of Korea 16-14 in a high-voltage encounter.
The 19-year-old Sumit, in contrast, outpunched Luong Van Toan of Vietnam 14-2. Toan is a gold-medallist from the South East Asian Games last year.
Suranjoy will now face off against Mongolia's Tugstsogt Nyambayar, who was his nemesis in both the 2009 and 2011 World Championships. Sumit will square off against Kim Hyeongkyu of Korea in his next bout.
"Suranjoy had a very tough bout as the Korean guy is also a tempo boxer. He really stretched Suranjoy in the last three minutes," national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu said.
"He has a tough opponent in the next round as well and we are keeping our fingers crossed. Sumit, on the other hand, made it completely one-sided, it was an easy one for him," he added.
On Friday, Olympic and World Championships bronze-medallist Vijender Singh will open his campaign against Ishak Waez of Syria. Vijender will have to make the semifinals to make the Olympic cut.
Another Indian boxer who will be in action on Friday is Asian Games silver-medallist Manpreet Singh (91kg), who will fight it out against Toulyek Yerbolat of Mongolia.
