Vikas one win away from Oly qualification

Amman, March 6

Vikas Krishan (69kg) entered the quarterfinals of the Asian Olympics Qualifiers of boxing with a thumping win over Kyrgyzstan’s Nursultan Mamataly.

Krishan clinched a 5-0 triumph to make the last-8 stage where he will square off against third seed Sewonrets Okazawa of Japan. Okazawa, who won the gold at last year’s Olympics test event in Tokyo, defeated Taiwan’s Pan Hung-Ming in his pre-quarterfinal bout.

In a near-perfect display of his trademark defensive game, Krishan was consistently impressive. The Indian slowly built up the tempo and struck a hard right hook in the second round to assert his dominance. The Kyrgyz boxer was left quite frustrated by Krishan’s control over the proceedings.

Sachin in quarterfinals

Earlier, Sachin Kumar (81kg) advanced to the quarterfinals after notching up a comprehensive 5-0 win over Samoa’s Dee Iaopo.

Mary, Panghal in action

MC Mary Kom (51kg) and Amit Panghal (52kg) will begin their campaign for a Tokyo Olympics berth. Mary, who has been seeded second, will face New Zealand’s Tasmyn Benny in her opening bout. Panghal will start his campaign against Mongolia’s Enkhmanadakh Kharkhuu after getting a first-round bye. In another pre-quarterfinal bout, Gaurav Solanki (57kg) will take on top-seeded Uzbek Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov. — PTI