World Olympic Boxing Qualification Tournament 2024: Amit Panghal, Jaismine Lamboria secure quotas on final day
India ended the final Olympic qualifying event for boxers with three quotas to take their total tally for Paris 2024 to six.
Tokyo Olympian Amit Panghal (men’s 51kg) and Jaismine Lamboria (women’s 57kg) secured Paris 2024 quotas for India on the final day of the World Olympic Boxing Qualification Tournament in Bangkok on Sunday.
Amit Panghal, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, relied on his quick movements, a combination of jabs and uppercuts, to earn a unanimous 5-0 verdict against the People’s Republic of China’s Liu Chuang in the quarter-finals.
Chuang had claimed Round 1 but the Indian national champion attacked relentlessly in Round 2 to grab the advantage. The decider saw both boxers trying to outpunch each other but Panghal ultimately came out on top by landing successful hits and securing a quota for India.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Amit Panghal represented India in the men’s 52kg boxing division at the Tokyo Olympics. Then the Asian Games champion, Amit Panghal was considered one of the favourites for a medal but was defeated by Rio 2016 silver medallist Yuberjen Martinez of Colombia in the opening bout.
Meanwhile, Jaismine Lamboria regained India’s quota in the women’s 57kg after defeating Mali’s Marine Camara with a 5-0 scoreline. It was India’s sixth boxing quota for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Earlier, India had to surrender the women’s 57kg quota won by Parveen Hooda after she was suspended for whereabouts failure. Jaismine had to drop her category from the 60kg to compete in the 57kg division in an attempt to regain the quota at the second Olympic boxing qualifier.
India had sent a 10-member contingent to Bangkok which included seven men and three women boxers.
Nishant Dev secured a Paris 2024 Olympic quota for India in the men’s 71kg category on Friday.
Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain (women's 75kg), two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen (women's 50kg) and Preeti Pawar (women's 54kg) secured quotas from the Asian Games last year.
This was also the final qualifying event in boxing for the Paris Olympics.
As many as nine Indian boxers competed at the Tokyo Olympics. Lovlina Borgohain, with a bronze, became the third boxer to win an Olympic medal for India after Vijender Singh (bronze at Beijing 2008) and Mary Kom (bronze at London 2012).