Olympics boxing qualification event cancelled

Lausanne, February 16

A global boxing qualifying tournament for the Tokyo Olympics has been cancelled and a European event was postponed from April to June.

The International Olympic Committee said today plans were changed because of “current challenges to international travel and related restrictions in many countries” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Boxers worldwide were to compete for 53 places in the Tokyo lineup at a tournament in Paris in June. Those places will now be allocated equally across continents by world rankings based on results since 2017, the IOC said.

Olympics entries from Africa and the Asia-Oceania region will now be allocated by rankings while boxers in the Americas and Europe can still earn qualifying places in the ring.

An Americas tournament is scheduled for May 10-16 in Argentina, and the European qualifiers should be in June at a venue to be decided. There will be eight men’s weight classes and five women’s weight classes at the Tokyo Olympics, which are set to open July 23.

India’s contingent unlikely to go past nine

New Delhi: With the IOC deciding to scrap the Olympics world qualifiers, India is unlikely to add to the nine who have made the cut for the Tokyo Games.

Amit Panghal (52kg), Manish Kaushik (63kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg), Satish Kumar (+91kg), M C Mary Kom (51kg), Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) have qualified for the Games.

The remaining categories in which Olympics slots are still up for grabs in the Indian context are men’s 57kg, 81kg and 91kg and women’s 57kg. None of these categories feature Indians in the higher rankings.

However, Indian boxing’s high performance director Santiago Nieva expects some more qualifications. “Obviously, there is disappointment but we are still hopeful. We will wait for what the IOC comes up with,” he told PTI. — AP, PTI

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