Deepak the odd one out as Nishant, Jaismine make last-8

Hangzhou, September 28

World Championships bronze medallist Deepak Bhoria’s Asian Games campaign ended in a heartbreak as he bowed out with a pre-quarterfinals loss even as Nishant Dev and Jaismine Lamboria advanced to the last-8 stage here today.

Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Jaismine notched an RSC (referee stops contest) win in her opening 60kg category bout against Hadeel Ghazwan Ashour of Saudi Arabia to move into the quarterfinals.

The 2023 World Championships bronze medallist Nishant (71kg) needed less than two minutes to knock out Bui Phuoc Tung of Vietnam in their Round of 16 bout. Deepak (51kg) went down by a 1-4 verdict to Tomoya Tsuboi of Japan.

Handed a difficult draw, the 26-year-old Hisar boxer was unlucky to meet the Japanese pugilist early on in the tournament. It was always going to be tricky against Tsuboi and Deepak was made aware of it in the first few seconds of the bout itself. The Japanese was quick off the block as he connected a flurry of punches, putting the Indian on the back foot. Deepak retaliated with his trademark left hook but struggled to keep up with the fast pace of the Japanese, who took the round 0-5.

Early strikes in the second round helped Deepak take control of the bout while Tsuboi was warned a couple of times for holding.

The two boxers were involved in some heavy exchanges and Deepak was able to take the round 3-2.

However, after two high-paced rounds, fatigue caught up with the two boxers and Tsuboi managed to evade attacks from Deepak and seal the contest.