Nishant Dev reaches semi-finals in Olympic boxing qualifying round to qualify for Paris Olympics

Nishant Dev (71 kg) reached the semi-finals of the Olympic boxing qualifiers on Friday, becoming the first Indian male boxer to qualify for the Paris Games.

The World Championship bronze medallist, who narrowly missed out on a place in the Olympics in the last qualifying round, secured his place by defeating Moldova's Vasile Cebotari 5-0 in a quarter-final battle between two southpaws.

This is India's fourth quota place, with women's boxers Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preet Pawar (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) already qualified for Paris.

There were five slots available in the 71kg class.

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Dev, who has been dominant throughout the tournament, started strongly and landed sharp and accurate punches, while the Indian was more composed and more cautious with his punches.

In the second round, Chebotari landed a few blows and Dev looked a bit out of breath, but the Indian continued to land accurate strikes.

In the final three minutes, both fighters looked exhausted but Dev continued to land punches at will, with Chebotari receiving a point deduction for landing a punch while the Indian was on the canvas.

Earlier, India's bid to qualify for the women's 60kg category ended when Ankushita Boro lost 2-3 to Sweden's Agnes Alexiusson in the quarter-finals.

Later in the day, Arundhati Choudhury (66kg) and Amit Panghal (51kg) are scheduled to compete.

(With input from each institution)