Indian boxing squad flies to Germany for Paris Olympics 2024 preparations
The Indian boxing squad flew off to Saarbrucken, Germany on Friday (June 28) to continue their preparations for the upcoming Paris Olympics 2024. The boxing contingent aims to level up in their pre-Olympics international training which will conclude on July 22, 2024.
Notably, boxers like Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Jaismine Lamboria, Preeti Pawar, and Nishant Dev are part of this camp. On the other hand, Amit Panghal, who will participate in the men's 51kg event, will train at the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) Shilaroo centre. The boxer will join the team later in France itself.
Strong boxing team fielded by India at Paris Olympics 2024
Among these boxers, Nishant Dev was the first Indian male boxer to qualify for the Paris Olympics after he defeated Moldova's Vasile Cebotari in the men's 71kg quarter-finals at the World Boxing Qualifiers which were held in Bangkok.
On the other hand, the first female boxer to qualify for the Summer Games was Nikhat Zareen. Zareen achieved this feat after she secured herself a bronze medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023. Notably, this will be Zareen's maiden Olympics.
Preeti Pawar, meanwhile, who is just 19 years old, will also be taking part in her first Summer Games. Similar to stalwart Nikhat Zareen, she too achieved qualification to the Paris Games after the conclusion of the Asian Games, where she made it to the semi-finals in the women's 54kg category.
Lovlina Borgohain will be featuring in her second Olympics. She has previously won a bronze medal, when the showpiece event was held in Tokyo in 2021. The former Arjuna Award winner gained her place in the Olympics post her performance at the Asian Games last year.
For Jaismine Lamboria, it was more of fate rather than fight. The 22-year-old got a chance to represent the country at the grand stage after Parveen Hooda got suspended. However, Lamboria is not to be taken lightly as she is certainly one of the best boxers in India.
Lastly, Amit Panghal, who is a gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games 2022, will be taking part in his second Olympics campaign. He would like to challenge his fate and bring home a medal this time out after he got unlucky in the previous edition.