Boxing World Olympic Qualifiers: Arundhati advances to pre-quarters, Narender Berwal bows out

Reigning national champion Arundhati Choudhary registered a convincing victory to move to the 66kg pre-quarterfinals while Asian Games bronze medallist Narender Berwal (+92kg) bowed out of the second Boxing World Olympic Qualifiers here on Wednesday.

While Choudhary won by a 5-0 unanimous decision against Stephanie Pieneiro of Puerto Rico, Berwal went down 2-3 to Ecuador’s Gerlon Gilmar Congo Chala.

Choudhary began her campaign with a clinical round 1 against her opponent. She was slightly conservative in Round 2, consolidating her position before again dominating the next round to get a unanimous verdict in her favour.

Later, Berwal put up a strong fight but it was not 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.

In the evening session, Ankushita Boro, will face Rimma Volossenko of Kazakhstan in 60kg pre-quarters while Nishant Dev (71kg) will be up against Thailand’s Peerapat Yeasungnoen to earn a spot in the quarterfinals.