Mary Kom, Amit Panghal qualify as 8 Indian boxers secure quotas for Tokyo Olympics
Amman/Jordan/ UNI: London Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom (51kg) and world number one Amit Panghal (52kg) were among three Indian boxers who secured Olympic berths by advancing to semifinals of the Asian Olympic Qualifiers, here on Monday.
Riding on her barrage of left cross and clear punches, the six-time world champion Mary notched up a comfortable 5-0 win over Philippines' Irish Magno in her quarterfinal bout for a ticket to her second Olympic Games.
The 37-year-old will now take on reigning Asian Games gold medallist Yuan Chang of China in her quest for a spot in the final of this event.
Earlier in the day, World Championships silver medallist Amit Panghal (52kg) defeated Carlo Paalam of Philippines 4-1 to secure the sixth quota for India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by entering the semi-finals.
He will next take on China’s Hu Jianguan, a bronze medallist at the Rio Olympics as well as the 2019 Asian Championships.
In the last Indian bout of the day, world bronze-medallist Simranjit Kaur (60kg) thrashed second seed Namuun Monkhor of Mongolia 5-0 to secure her first Olympic place.
Simranjjit, also an Asian silver-medallist, will face third seed Shih-Yi Wu of Taiwan in the semifinals after a fine performance against Monkhor.
With Simranjjit's win, the number of Indian boxers securing Olympic berths went up to eight.
On Sunday, Vikas Krishan (69kg), Pooja Rani (75kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and Ashish Kumar (75kg) had become the first set of Indian boxers to qualify for quadrennial showpiece scheduled in July-August this year.
Meanwhile,World Championships bronze medallist Manish Kaushik (63kg), went down 2-3 to third seed and Asian Games silver medallist Chinzorig Baatarsukh of Mongolia in a hard-fought quarter-final.
However, Kaushik can still fulfil his Olympic dream as with six boxers qualifying from 63kg, he will get once more chance with a box-off opportunity, where the losing quarterfinalist players will have yet another shot.
In his quest, Manish will face Harrison Garside of Australia in the box-off bout on 11th and a win there will secure his Olympic quota.
It was however, the end of the road in the Asian Qualifiers for former world youth champion Sakshi Chaudhary (57kg) who was blanked 0-5 by Korea's Im Aeji in the quarter-finals.
(Image credit : UNI)
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