The setback at the Tokyo Olympics must have played on the mind of Himachal Pradesh boxer Ashish Kumar Chaudhary, when he was boarding the flight to Birmingham for his first appearance at the Commonwealth Games.
Determined to make his debut at the quadrennial sporting extravaganza memorable, the Asian Championship silver medallist wanted to approach the Commonwealth Games with a clean slate.
"There is no pressure, as it will be my first appearance at the CWG. In fact, it will help me approach the Games without any baggage. But there will certainly be expectations, and clearly the focus remains on gold," the 28-year-old had said before his departure.
Late on Monday night at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, he made his intentions clear by registering an authoritative victory by unanimous decision against a lesser-known Travis Tapatuetoa of Niue to progress to the quarterfinals of the 80kg light middleweight category.
At one point it appeared that the bout would end after the first two rounds, given the ferocity of Chaudhary's punches.
In the final round, the referee had to take a second Standing 8 count (the first was taken in the second round) from a brave Travis, who decided to go the distance despite being at the receiving end of the Indian's fury.
Kumar started with a solid left hook to unsettle Travis first up, before coming up with a few combination punches to wrap the opening round in style.
Midway into the second round, it appeared Ashish was shadow boxing against a hapless Travis, whose weak defensive technique was thoroughly exposed in this bout.
