Mary, Panghal, Simranjit qualify, 8 Indians set for Tokyo Olympics

Amman, March 9

MC Mary Kom (51kg), Amit Panghal (52kg) and Simranjit Kaur (60kg) secured Olympics berths by advancing to semifinals of the Asian Olympics Qualifiers for boxing, taking the total number of the country’s Tokyo-bound pugilists to eight.

Comfortable win

Mary Kom notched up a 5-0 win over Philippines’ Irish Magno in her quarterfinal bout for a ticket to her second Olympics. The 37-year-old will square off against China’s Yuan Chang, a former Youth Olympics champion, in the semifinals.

Earlier, top seed Panghal edged out Carlo Paalam of Philippines in a 4-1 split verdict to be assured of his maiden Olympics appearance and a medal at the qualifiers.

First Punjab woman boxer to make it to Olympics

In the last Indian bout of the day, Simranjit upstaged second seed Namuun Monkhor of Mongolia 5-0 to secure her first Olympics appearance. She is the first Punjab woman boxer to make it to the Olympics. Simranjit, hailing from Chakkar village in Ludhiana, will face third seed Shih-Yi Wu of Taiwan in the semifinals.

Panghal started India’s winning run by managing to pull off a close win. The 23-year-old had earlier beaten Paalam in the semifinals of the 2018 Asian Games and the quarterfinals of 2019 World Championships, which were also split decisions. Next up for Panghal is China’s Jianguan Hu, who stunned fourth seed Kazakh Saken Bibossinov 5-0.

Mary gave a near-perfect performance against the spirited Magno. The Manipuri dictated the pace of the bout, drawing from her huge reservoir of experience to put Magno on the backfoot with a very effective counter-attacking strategy.

Manish Kaushik lost 2-3 to third seed Chinzorig Baatarsukh of Mongolia after an intense battle but is not out of contention for an Olympics berth just yet. Kaushik has to win the box-off between losing quarterfinalists as the top-6 will claim the Tokyo tickets in the 63kg category. He will face Australia’s Harrison Garside in the box-off.

Sakshi Chaudhary (57kg) failed to secure an Olympics berth after going down (0-5) to South Korea’s Im Aeji in the quarterfinals. — PTI

INDIA’S 8

• Amit Panghal (52kg)
• Vikas Krishan (69kg)
• Satish Kumar ( 91kg)
• Ashish Kumar (75kg)
• MC Mary Kom (51kg)
• Simranjit Kaur (60kg)
• Pooja Rani (75kg)
• Lovlina Borgohain (69kg)