Asian Olympic Qualfiers: Shiva, Devendro enter quarters

The victories by Shiva and Devendro lifted the morale of the Indian team, which had suffered setbacks in the past two days of competition including the shock loss of second seed Vikas Krishan (75kg) in the opening round.

Shiva Thapa, seeded top in his category, outpunched Korea’s Myeongkwan Lee 3-0 to enter the last-eight stage.

World Championships bronze-medallist Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Commonwealth silver-medallist L. Devendro Singh (49kg) today advanced to the quarterfinals of the Asian Olympic Qualifiers here.

Shiva, seeded top in his category, outpunched Korea’s Myeongkwan Lee 3-0 to enter the last-eight stage.

Fourth-seeded Devendro defeated Malaysia’s Mohd Redzuan Muhamad Fuad Bin by a similar margin.

However, Gaurav Bidhuri (52kg) lost to Japan’s Ryomei Tanaka.

In the last bout of the day, Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Mandeep Jangra (69kg) lost to Thailand’s Saylom Ardee.

The victories by Shiva and Devendro lifted the morale of the Indian team, which had suffered setbacks in the past two days of competition including the shock loss of second seed Vikas Krishan (75kg) in the opening round.

There were no women’s bouts today as the quarterfinalists were decided last night. From India, M. C. Mary Kom (51kg) and L. Sarita Devi (60kg) have made it to the last-eight stage.

The continental qualifiers have 30 Olympic berths on offer for 24 men and six for women. This means that the top three boxers in each category from the men’s competition and top two from the women’s draw will make the cut for Rio de Janeiro.

The third slot in each of the men’s category will be decided via a match between the bronze-medallists.