National champion in 80 Kg category, Lakshya Chahar became the fourth Indian to crash out of the first round of World Boxing Qualification Tournament for the Paris Olympics in Busto Arsizio, Italy, on Tuesday.
Lakshya Chahar, was knocked out by Iran’s Gheshlaghi Meysam, an Asian Championships silver medalist, in his round of 64 bout on the second day of the competition.
The two boxers went toe-to-toe in the first two rounds but it was Meysam who seized the initiative in the final round and knocked Lakshya out with 20 seconds left on the clock.
Lakshya’s exit means that four of the nine Indian boxers competing for Paris 2024 Olympic quotas at the Busto Arsizio meet have now crashed out in the opening round. Deepak Bhoria (51kg), Narender Berwal (+92kg) and Jaismine Lamboria (women’s 60kg) lost on Monday.
Six-time Asian Championships medalist Shiva Thapa will face reigning world champion Ruslan Abdullaev of Uzbekistan in the opening round of the men’s 63.5kg category while World Championships bronze medalist Nishant Dev will go up against Lewis Richardson of Great Britain in the 71kg division.
Former youth world champion Ankushita Boro (66kg) will face Sonvico Emilie of France while national champion Sanjeet Kumar (92kg) will square off against Aibek Oralbay of Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
World Championships bronze medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin (57kg) received a bye in his first round and will be in action on Friday in the round of 32.
The Busto Arsizio meet has 49 Olympics quotas – 28 in the men’s and 21 in women’s categories – up for grabs.
Except for the women’s 57kg and 60kg, where the top two and three obtain Paris 2024 quotas, the semi-finalists in all the remaining categories secure quotas for their country.
Each country can obtain a maximum of one quota per weight category for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The second World Qualification Tournament will be held in Bangkok from May 23 to June 3.