BAKU (Azerbaijan) -- Indian boxers enjoyed another good day in Baku, with Devendro Singh, Manoj Kumar, Sumit Sangwan and Vikas Krishan all progressing in their respective categories at the AIBA's World Qualifying Tournament, putting them just a win away from securing Rio berths.
Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Devendro reached the semi-finals in the 49kg category, while Manoj and Sangwan made progress in the 64kg and 81kg events respectively. Vikas made it through to the quarterfinals of the 75kg category after beating Georgia's Zaal Kvachatadze 3-0; he will next face South Korea's Dongyun Lee.
Fourth seed Devendro, who beat South Africa's Bandla Sibusiso 3-0 in the quarterfinal, is assured of a medal now but will have to make the summit clash to qualify for Rio since only two quota places are up for grabs in the 49kg division. He will face Spain's Samuel Heredia, who stunned top seed Dmytro Zamotaev of Ukraine.
"It was a very good performance by Devendro," national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu told PTI. "He is a boxer with a big heart and he keeps showing that in every bout he fights."
Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj and Sumit will be through to the Rio Games if they enter the semi-finals after Wednesday's rest day.
While Manoj got the better of Bulgaria's Ismetov Ayrin Smetov 3-0, Sumit beat Sandagsuren Erdenebayar of Mongolia 3-0.
Manoj rallied to beat Ismetov after losing the opening round. "Manoj endured a very tough bout but to his credit, he not just hung in there but also fought back brilliantly," Sandhu said. "His opponent was a very sharp puncher but he sustained a cut in the second round which slowed him down. Manoj took advantage of it and came back."
The former Asian bronze-medallist will now face Tajikistan's Rakhimov Shavkatdzhon, who defeated Bahrain's Williams Rashield.
Sumit hardly broke sweat against Erdenebayar in his pre-quarterfinal bout. He will next be up against Russia's Petr Khamukov, who got the better of Slovakia's Denis Lazer.
"Sumit fought with a lot of calmness," Sandhu said. "He applied his brains and made sure that he never got too close to his opponent. It was a very dominating performance by him."
On Monday night, former World Championships bronze-medallist Vikas Krishan (75kg) had advanced to the pre-quarterfinals with a 3-0 win over Japan's Takahashi Makoto. He will face Georgia's Kvachatadze Zaal late on Tuesday.
The tournament has 39 qualifying spots up for grabs -- two in the 49kg category, five each in 52kg, 56kg, 60kg, 64kg, 69kg, 75kg and 81kg, and one each in 91kg and +91kg. Over 400 boxers from more than 100 countries are vying for these slots in the final qualifying tournament for amateur boxers.
India have not sent any entry in the 56kg category since Shiva Thapa already qualified for the Rio Games during the Asian qualifiers in March.