Tokyo Olympics 2020, Asia-Oceania Boxing Qualifiers: Lovlina Borgohain, Ashish Kumar and Satish Kumar book quota places for the Olympics
What's the story?
Lovlina Borgohain, Ashish Kumar and Satish Kumar qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 after reaching the semi-finals in their respective weight categories of the Asia-Oceania zone Olympic Boxing Qualifiers. With these results, a total of 5 Indian pugilists have qualified for the Olympics on the 6th day of the qualifiers.
In case you didn't know...
The Asia/Oceania Olympic Qualification Tournament for Boxing is being held at the Prince Hamzah Hall in Amman, Jordan from 3rd to 11th March. The Indian pugilists competed in all the 13 weight categories (8 for men and 5 for women) at the qualifiers.
Across the men's and women's weight categories, a total of 11 Indian boxers had reached the quarter-finals and were one win away from qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. Earlier in the day, Pooja Rani and Vikas Krishan qualified for the Olympics after reaching the semi-finals in the women's 75 kg and men's 69 kg weight categories respectively.
This was the first bout for Lovlina and Satish in the qualifiers as they had got a bye in the previous round while Ashish had reached the quarter-finals after winning his Round of 32 and pre-quarterfinal bouts with unanimous 5-0 verdicts.
The men's +91 kg weight category and the women's 69 kg weight category has 4 Olympic slots while the men's 75 kg weight category has 5 Olympic slots up for grabs in these qualifiers.
Also check out: the Tokyo Olympics 2020 Schedule
The heart of the matter
It was a perfect evening session for India on the 6th day of the Asia-Oceania Olympic Boxing Qualifiers with Lovlina Borgohain (women's 69 kg), Ashish Kumar (men's 75 kg) and Satish Kumar (+91 kg) making it through to the semi-finals, thereby booking their tickets for the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Second seeded Lovlina defeated Melieva Maftunakhon of Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals of the women's 69 kg weight category with a unanimous 5-0 verdict in her favour.
Lovlina, a two-time bronze medalist at the World Championships, dominated the bout making good use of her reach. She used her left jab and straight punches to good effect to keep her opponent at bay. She got a unanimous 5-0 verdict in her favour, with 4 judges scoring all the three rounds 10-9 for the Indian while the other judge scoring the 1st and 3rd round 10-9 in favour of Lovlina but the 2nd round in favour of the Uzbek by the same score. The final judges' scorecard read 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 in favour of the Indian.
Ashish defeated Maikhel Muskita of Indonesia in the quarter-finals of the men's 75 kg weight category with a unanimous 5-0 verdict in his favour.
The 25-year old Ashish followed in Lovlina's footsteps and totally out-boxed his 19-year old Indonesian opponent. He won the first 2 rounds with a unanimous 5-0 verdict, with 4 judges scoring the 1st round 10-9 and the other judge scoring it 10-8 in favour of Ashish. The 2nd round was even more one-sided with 3 judges scoring the round 10-9 and the other 2 judges scoring it 10-8 in favour of Ashish. With the bout almost sealed, Ashish took it slightly easier in the last round but never allowed his opponent to get the upper hand, eventually closing the bout with a unanimous 5-0 verdict with the final judges' scorecards reading 30-27, 30-27, 30-26, 30-24, 29-28 in the Indian's favour.
Fourth seeded Satish defeated Daivii Otgonbayar of Mongolia in the quarterfinals of the men's +91 kg weight category with a unanimous 5-0 verdict in his favour.
Satish, a bronze medalist at the Asian Championships, comprehensively out-punched his Mongolian opponent getting a unanimous 5-0 verdict in all the 3 rounds. While in the 1st round he got a score of 10-9 from 4 judges and 10-8 from the other judge, the extent of his domination can be gauged by the fact that all the 5 judges scored the final 2 rounds 10-8 in the Indian's favour. The final judges' scorecard of the bout read 30-24, 30-25, 30-25, 30-25, 30-25 in favour of Satish.
What's next?
Lovlina will be facing the third seed Gu Hong of China while Ashish will be up against the top seed Eumir Marcial of Philippines in their respective semi-final encounters.
Satish, on the other hand, will have a fight on his hand as he takes on the top seed and reigning World Champion Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan in his semi-final bout.
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