India’s Nishant Dev became just the fourth and the first male boxer to seal his spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics after passing Moldova’s Vasile Cebotari test 5:0 to book his 71 kg category semi-final spot at the Boxing World Qualifiers at Bangkok in Thailand on Friday, 31st May. (More Sports News)
Sachin Siwach beat Frenchmen Samuel Kistohurry 4-1 in the 57kg quarterfinals while 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Amit Panghal ticked off South Korea’s Inkyu Kim 5:0 to also reach the quarter-finals and are just one win away from booking their flights to Paris.
India had already booked three Boxing slots for the Olympic Games in Paris with Nikhat Zareen (women’s 50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) by securing medals at the Asian Games and hoped to add to the Paris sheet after sending ten more to Bangkok.
Nishant, who’s Olympic dream was torn apart by USA’s Omari Jones in the first Qualifier in Italy, found his groove, as well as his spot for Paris.
The Karnal-born looked super focused and wanted it bad, looked committed, hell-bent for a quota and pulled off several combinational tricks in the first round. It was composure in amalgamation with fierce aggression where he landed hooks and uppercuts to seal the deal.
Panghal fired from all cylinders to bring down Kim in three while the resilient Sachin continued making his presence felt in pursuit of reaching the semifinal.
However, it was not all sunshine as Ankushita Boro went down to Sweden’s Agnes Alexiusson as Arundhati Chaudhary followed losing to Slovakia’s Jessica Triebelova. Sanjeet’s fate was not much different after failing to progress to the quarters, losing to Azerbaijan’s Loren Betro Alfonso.
