At the Asian/Oceanian Olympic qualifiers currently hosted at Amman, Jordan a total of eight India boxers have secured their entry for Tokyo 2020. Following yesterday’s bout, India’s superstar pugilist MC Mary Kom has joined with seven more boxers from the country, who will be heading to the capital of Japan in July to rack up India’s medal tally.
A total of thirteen India boxers entered in the qualifiers, which is conducted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Boxing Task Force. A semi final entry in the qualifier was announced to earn the participants a berth at the main event in Tokyo.
Mary Kom, who competes in the 51 kg category, had a walk in the park in yesterday’s quarterfinal bout against Irish Magno from Philippines. The 37 year old veteran dominated Magno 5-0, which saw her smooth entry into the semis.
The 2012 London Olympics bronze medal winner will be joining with Asian Championships silver medallist Simranjit Kaur and IOC’s Boxing Task Force’s world no. 1 seeded Amit Panghal in Tokyo.
Simranjit powered through the qualifiers with two back to back 5-0 wins in her pre-quarter final and quarter final matches. Competing in the 60 kg category, the 24 year old defeated no. 2 seeded Monkhoryn Namuun of Mongolia yesterday.
Amit Panghal, who entered as 1st seeded for the qualifiers, earned his Olympics entry after winning the quarter final face off against his former Asian Games and World Championships opponent Carlo Paalam. The 52 kg boxer defeated the Filipino 4-1, and will take on China’s Jianguan Hu in the semis.
Five India boxers had already secured their Olympics berth on Sunday. They are 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Vikas Krishan and silver medallist Satish Kumar, 2019 Asian Championships gold winner Pooja Rani, 2019 World Championships bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and Ashish Kumar, who won a gold at the Thailand Open tournament last year.
2nd seeded Lovlina Borgohain (69 kg) defeated Uzbekistan’s Maftunakhon Melieva, and 4th seeded Pooja Rani (75 kg), overpowered Thailand’s Pornnipa Chutee 5-0 in the quarter final.
While Satish Kumar (+91 kg) smoothly went past Daivii Otgonbayar of Mongolia 5-0, Vikas Krishan (69 kg) had a tough fight versus Japan’s Sewonrets Okazawa.
Okazawa, seeded third and third seed and Asian silver-medallist who won a gold medal at last year’s Olympic test event in Tokyo, almost had Krishan biting the dust. However, the Haryanvi boxer finally came out on top, fetching him the semi final entry.
Ashish Kumar (75 kg) earned his maiden Olympics entry after defeating Maikhel Muskita of Indonesia on Sunday. Despite losing his father last month, Kumar retained his focus for Tokyo, and dominated the Indonesian 5-0 in the quarter final bout.
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