Arundhati advances to pre-quarters, Narender bows out of Olympic qualifiers

NEW DELHI: Reigning national champion Arundhati Choudhary secured a decisive victory, advancing to the 66kg pre-quarterfinals, while Asian Games bronze medallist Narender Berwal (+92kg) was eliminated from the second Boxing World Olympic Qualifiers in Bangkok on Wednesday.Choudhary triumphed with a 5-0 unanimous decision against Puerto Rico's Stephanie Pieneiro. In contrast, Berwal narrowly lost 2-3 to Ecuador's Gerlon Gilmar Congo Chala.Choudhary commenced her campaign with a dominant performance in Round 1. She adopted a more conservative approach in Round 2 to consolidate her position, before resuming her dominance in the final round, earning a unanimous verdict in her favor.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.(With PTI inputs)