Australia have endured a mixed opening day at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Qatar with two of three fighters eliminated in the opening round.
The prestigious competition guarantees places at the Rio Olympics next year for top-three finishers in the 10 different weight divisions and Australia have a nine-strong squad that includes Commonwealth super heavyweight silver medallist Joe Goodall.
Adelaide welterweight David Biddle scored a unanimous points victory over Argentina's Ronan Sanchez but now faces a huge test in the second round on Thursday against Asian champion Wuttichai Masuk of Thailand who is ranked No.2 in the world.
But there were early exits for bantamweight Jayden Hansen who lost on points to Robenilson Jesus De Vieira and the well-fancied Victorian heavyweight Jason Whateley who went out to a split decision in favour of rugged German Roman Freiss.
Four Australians are in action on day two of the 10-day tournament with Goodall the first to take the ring against Georgia's Mikheil Bakhtidze in the afternoon session.
In the evening session, Melbourne lightweight Joshua Keirl faces Britain's Joseph Cordina with Nathan Webber also up against British opposition in his welterweight clash with Joshua Kelly.
Light-heavyweight Aaron Spagnolo, who fights out of the same Collingwood boxing club as Keirl, takes on Tashi Norbu of Bhutan.
Unlike previous years, where a quarter-final spot at the world championships guaranteed an Olympic berth, the path to Rio has been made even more difficult for Australian boxers by world governing body AIBA, who have demanded they now qualify through the highly competitive Asian division.
This is a result of the poor showing in the London Games where Australia had one of the biggest teams, thanks to qualification through Oceania, but only Jeff Horn advanced to the quarter-final stages.
It leaves Australia with the daunting prospect of not having a male fighter at an Olympics for the first time since 1920.
