Jordan, March 10 : After five Indian boxing athletes were qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020, India has added more three feathers to its cap as six-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51kg), World No.1 Amit Panghal (52kg), and Simranjit Kaur (60kg) have earned Olympic berths by advancing in the semi-finals of the Asian Qualifiers at Amman in Jordan yesterday.
Mary Kom clearly sailed as she defeated Phippilines' Irish Mango 5-0 (unanimous verdict) in her quarter-finals to secure an Olympic place and progressed into the semi-finals in Amman. The 37-year-old will be featuring for the second time in Olympics after winning a bronze medal at London Olympics in 2012. She will take on Yuan in the semi-finals. She had earned a ticket to the Olympic qualifiers by beating Nikhat Zareen in the final of Women's Boxing Olympic trials in the 51kg weight category in New Delhi, last year in December.
Another champion who reached into semis is the World No.1 Amit Panghal and more than anything he has booked his first Olympic place by earning a victory over Philipines Carlo Paalam by 4-1 (split decision). The 24-year-old will be facing China's Jiangnan Hu, who notched down world bronze-medallist and fourth seed Kazakh Saken Bibossinov 5-0.
Simranjit Kaur who staged a thrilling game got India an eighth Olympic quota by pinning down second-seeded Namuun Monkhor of Mongolia 5-0 with a comfortable to secure her first Olympic berth.
With Simranjit Kaur winning her 60kg quarter-final in the last Indian bout of the day, 8 Indian boxers booked Tokyo Olympic berths at the Asian qualifiers in Amman. The other Indian boxers who have sealed an Olympic quota so far are Asian Championships gold medallist Pooja Rani (75kg), two-time World Championships bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Vikas Krishan (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg).
In the 2012 Olympics, eight boxers were qualified including seven men and Mary Kom. However, now four men and four women boxers have got berths in the Tokyo Olympics. The number of boxers can rise for Olympics if with Sachin Kumar and Manish Kaushik's 'box-off' bouts scheduled later in the tournament. The other Indian boxers Sakshi Chaudhary (57kg) will get a chance to win quotas at World qualifiers in Paris in May.
