World Olympic Boxing Qualification: Lakshya Chahar Bows Out

Busto Arsizio [Italy] : India’s flawed campaign at the first World Boxing Qualification Tournament for the Paris 2024 Olympics continued as Lakshya Chahar crashed out of the men’s 80kg event on Tuesday.

The Indian was knocked out by Iran’s Gheshlaghi Meysam in the third round of his round of 64 bout on the second day of the competition.

In the match, the two boxers went toe-to-toe in the first two rounds, but it was Meysam who seized the opportunities in the final round and knocked Indian out with 20 seconds left on the clock.

Lakshya’s exit meant that four Indian boxers participating for the Paris 2024 Olympic quotas at the Busto Arsizio meet have now crashed out in the opening round.

Meanwhile, the six-time Asian Championships medallist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) will go head to head against Ruslan Abdullaev of Uzbekistan and World Championships bronze medallist Nishant Dev (71kg) will go up against Richardson Lewis of Great Britain later in the day.

World Championships bronze medallist Deepak Bhoria (51kg) went down fighting against Huseynov Nijat of Azerbaijan on day one. The first two rounds saw a tight contest as both boxers went into attacking mode from the get-go.

The young pugilist from Azerbaijan took full advantage of his pace and swift movements to make life difficult for Deepak in the ring. Deepak lost both the first and second rounds with an identical 2-3 scoreline.

The Indian pugilist came all guns blazing in the final round and delivered some quality blows. He won the round 4-1 but it wasn’t enough as Nijat won the bout 3-2 in a split decision verdict.

Asian Games bronze medallist Narender (+92kg) and Commonwealth Games 2022 bronze medallist Jaismine (60kg) will be in action later tonight against Germany’s Nelvie Tiafack and Japan’s Ayaka Taguchi respectively.

Late Monday, national champion Lakshya Chahar (80kg) will start his campaign in the round of 64 clash against Iran’s Gheshlaghi Meysam.