Pooja Rani And Vikas Krishnan Book Spots At Tokyo Olympics 2020

More good news for Indian boxing as participants book spots for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The gold medallist of Asian Championships, Pooja Rani and the gold medallist of the Commonwealth games, Vikas Krishnan become first boxers to book their berths at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Also, Lovlina Borgohain and Ashish Kumar joined the stride as they boxed their ways to the semi-finals of the Asian Olympics qualifiers.

Key Takeaways

• Vikas Krishnan defeats Sewonrets Quincy Mensah Okazawa of Japan in the men’s 69 Kg boxing quarterfinals.
• Pooja Rani defeats Pomnipa Chutee of Thailand in the women’s 75 kg boxing quarterfinals.
• Both Vikas and Pooja have now secured a spot at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
• Sachin Kumar, Mary Kom and Amit Panghal are yet to finalise their entries to the Tokyo Olympics.

Pooja Rani Clears quarterfinals

Champion Pooja Rani became the first Indian boxer to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 on Sunday. She outboxed Thailand’s 18-year-old Pomnipa Chutee in 75 kg category for women with a score of 5-0. Post the win, she booked her spot for the Tokyo Olympics.

Pooja shall be facing the current reigning world and Asian champion, Li Qian of China. Qian has already defeated Mongolia's Myagmarjargal Munkhbat for the opening bout. Additionally, Pooja has bagged medals thrice at Asian games and also clinched a bronze at the Asian Games held in 2014 formerly.

Vikas Krishnan enters semis

Vikas Krishan defeated Japan’s Sewonrets Quincy Mensah Okazawa in the men’s 69 kg quarterfinals of the Asian Olympic qualifiers in Amman (Jordan) to book his spot in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. It was a hard-fought win for the Indian boxer as he had to stage a brilliant comeback after losing the first round of the bout.

Also, Vikas is a commonwealth games gold medalist who entered the quarterfinals post defeating Kyrgyzstan’s Nursultan Mamataly. Krishana entered the event after clinching a gold at South Asian Games in December last year. After an undefeated spree on professional grounds, the South Asian Games was his first amateur event.

Other Boxers on their way to score a seat at the Tokyo Olympics

Till now, Ashish Kumar booked his place in the semis by defeating Indonesia's Maikhel Muskita. Earlier, Lovlina Borgohain scored 5-0 against Uzbek's Maftunakhon Melieva in the quarterfinals. This has brought us to a total of 4 boxing spots at the Asian Olympics this year.

Ashish Kumar (75kg) defeated Maikhel Muskita of Indonesia 5-0 to book his place in the Olympic Games 2020. Sachin Kumar shall standoff against China's Chen Daxaing for an 81 kg boxing tournament for men in a quarterfinals stint. He qualified for the quarterfinals post a 5-0 win against Samoa’s Dee Iaopo. Mary Kom, a London Olympics bronze medallist shall contest for a spot at the Tokyo Olympics. Also, Amit Panghal is to begin a campaign to enter the Tokyo Olympics.

Recently, Amit Panghal told TOI that he believed that the condition of Indian Boxers has improved by leaps and bounds. He believes that we can expect at least two gold medals from them at the Tokyo Olympics this year. Till now, Indian has won two bronze medals in boxing. Amongst all the Olympics participated in, Vijender Singh bagged a gold at the Beijing Olympics 2008. Also, Mary Kom bagged a bronze at the London Olympics 2012.

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Vipashyana Dubey is an intern at ShethePeople