Commonwealth Games gold medallist Vikas Krishan (69kg) showed a lot of determination in advancing to the Asian/Oceanian Olympic Qualifiers in Amman, Jordan today as Sachin Kumar (81kg) won the first of his two box-off bouts to keep India in the hunt for the highest-ever Olympic quota haul.
But the biggest disappointment of the day was the loss suffered by the top seed and World Championships silver medallist Amit Panghal (52kg) who had to settle for the bronze as did Lovlina Borgohain (69kg).
Indian boxers have so far dominated the Asian Qualifiers by bagging 8 quotas brought home by Mary Kom (51kg), Pooja Rani (75kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg), Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Satish Kumar (+91kg) besides Panghal, Krishan and Borgohain. India currently shares the top position with Kazakhstan out of 10 nations with chances of topping their 2012 haul of 8 quotas as Sachin Kumar and Manish Kaushik (63kg) are still in contention due to their box-off opportunities.
Indian boxers, who failed in their quest at the Asian Qualifiers, will get one more opportunity to realize their Olympic dream at the World Qualifiers set to be held in Paris in May.
Krishan’s steely resolve was the biggest talking point for the Indian contingent on the semi-final day that had mixed results. Despite suffering a cut below his left eyebrow, the former Asian Games gold medallist refused to bow out and gave his all to knock out the second seed and World Championships bronze medallist Ablaikhan Zhussupov of Kazakhstan in a 3-2 verdict.
Krishan will face Eishaih Hussein of Jordan in the final tomorrow.
In the other bouts of the day, Panghal went down to Rio Olympic bronze medallist Jianguan Hu of China 2-3, having beaten him at the 2019 Asian Championships. Two-time World Championships bronze medallist Lovlina was blanked 0-5 by China’s Hong Gu in her semi-final.
Sachin Kumar (81 kg) defeated Manh Cuong Nguyen of Vietnam 4-1 in the first box-off bout and will next face Tajikistan's Shabbos Negmatulloev in the final box-off bout tomorrow for the Olympic quota.
BFI Media Release