BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 9 : It’s Easy for Austin, Marquez : Boxing: They reach the quarterfinals without trouble. De La Hoya, Byrd, Nicholson fight today.

Raul Marquez and Tim Austin gave the United States two more boxers in the Olympic quarterfinals Sunday, and three others can guarantee themselves bronze medals by winning today.

Marquez, a light-middleweight from Houston, chased a punchless Rival Cadeau of the Seychelles all over the ring in a 20-3 victory, but finished with a scrape under his left eye.

Tim Austin, a flyweight from Cincinnati, had an equally easy bout, beating Bulgaria’s Yulian Strogov, 19-7.

Today, Oscar De La Hoya of East Los Angeles, Chris Byrd of Flint, Mich., and Danell Nicholson of Chicago can reach the medal round--the semifinals--if they win their quarterfinal matchups.

De La Hoya, a lightweight, and Byrd, a middleweight, are favored.

De La Hoya, in his third appearance of the tournament, fights Bulgarian Dimitrov Tontchev in the night session. Byrd meets Ahmed Dine of Algeria. Nicholson, a relatively inexperienced heavyweight, faces the world champion, Cuba’s Felix Savon.

Austin, who fought Strogov in the first of 32 bouts Sunday, advanced to a Tuesday quarterfinal match with Benjamin Mwangata of Tanzania, who won an 8-7 decision over Luiz Freitas in the bout after Austin’s.

Also Tuesday, Marquez will meet hard-hitting Orhan Delibas of the Netherlands, who in the bout after Marquez’s scored the first clean knockout of the tournament. He flattened Chalit Boonsingkarn of Thailand with one right hand in the second round.

Marquez and Austin made the U.S. team 15-5 for the tournament.

It was another big day for the Cuban steamroller. Coach Alcides Sagarra’s team, in its first Olympics since 1980, won four times and is 21-1. Cuba could win medals in 11 of 12 weight classes.

Against Cadeau, who took flight early in the first round and never stopped running, Marquez had 7-1 and 15-1 leads after two rounds. He got his scoring points with quick right jabs, a smattering of body shots and an uppercut to the chin that snapped Cadeau’s head late in the second round.

Several times when Cadeau saw a Marquez punch coming, he tripped and nearly fell trying to escape.

“The guy had no offense at all. He was just trying to survive,” Marquez said.

He said the blood Cadeau drew with a second-round punch was the first he had shed in 135 amateur bouts. It won’t jeopardize his participation in the tournament.

“I got in a lot of good, stiff jabs and my body shots hurt him,” Marquez said.

Austin, the last of the 12 Americans to appear in the tournament, finally got to box Sunday, in the 211th bout. He was the only flyweight to get a first-round bye in the July 25 draw.

In a matchup of left-handers, Austin learned early that he could come down the middle on Strogov with straight lefts. And Strogov learned he couldn’t slip them, so he ran.

By midway through the second round, Austin had found a rhythm, hitting the Bulgarian with a left hand every 12 to 15 seconds. Austin had a 4-3 lead after one round but boosted it to 12-4 in the second.

“I wanted to look like and be the aggressor,” Austin said. “I was really upset when I saw Eric (Griffin)’s loss on TV at the Village. I threw a chair. But I felt comfortable about my match.”