Asian Boxing: Satish, Sonia in QFs, three others in last-16

Bangkok: Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Satish Kumar (+91kg) and the fast-rising Sonia Chahal (57kg) entered the quarterfinals on an all-win opening day for India at the Asian Boxing Championships here.

Satish out-punched Iran's Iman Ramezanpourdelavar to make the last eight, while world silver-medallist Sonia defeated Vietnam's Uyan Do Nha in the women's draw on Friday.

In the morning session, national champion Deepak (49kg) and Rohit Tokas (64kg) advanced to the last-16 stage with confident victories. Joining them was Ashish (69kg), who defeated Cambodia's V Y Sophors in the evening session.

"All the gold medal winners from this competition will be assured of a place in the world championships team (scheduled in September this year)," Indian boxing's High-Performance Director Santiago Nieva said.

Satish, who won a bronze medal at the event in its 2015 edition, quite literally eased past his fumbling opponent, striking at will in a one-sided contest.

In the last Indian bout of the day, Sonia pounced on her overtly defensive opponent and produced a near flawless performance to clinch a 5-0 win.

Earlier, Deepak defeated Vietnam's Loi Bui Cong Danh, fetching a unanimous verdict from the judges before Rohit put it past Taiwan's Chu-Yen Lai with a similar scoreline. Deepak opened the proceedings for India. He kept it simple and focussed on hitting straight to ensure clean and impactful punches. Rohit Tokas (64kg) was up against a more aggressive one in Lai but he hardly broke a sweat to advance.