Indian boxers Pooja Rani, Lovlina Borgohain, Vikas Krishan, Satish Kumar, and Ashish Kumar have qualified for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics 2020 on Sunday at Asian/Oceanian Olympic Qualifiers.
Championships gold medallist Pooja (75kg), two-time World Championships bronze medallist Lovlina (69kg) and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Vikas (69kg) became the first three Indian boxers to seal their places.
Vikas had to dig deep and show his resolve in a tough bout against the third seed and Asian Championships silver medallist Sewonrets Okazawa of Japan, whom he eventually beat 5-0. The fourth-seeded Pooja Rani, meanwhile, had it easy as she ran away to a commanding 5-0 win over Thailand's Pornnipa Chutee.
Lovlina sealed her maiden Olympic spot and a semi-final berth at the event with a fabulous show of aggression that gave her a flawless 5-0 victory over Uzbek boxer Maftunakhon Melieva.
Ashish defeated Maikhel Muskita of Indonesia 5-0 while Satish defeated Otgonbayar Daivii of Mongolia 5-0 to secure fourth and fifth spots for India in the Olympics.
The only disappointment for India in the first session of the first quarter-final day was the tight 2-3 loss suffered by Sachin Kumar in 81kg against the experienced Daxaing Chen of China.
His Olympic dreams are still not over yet as in the 81 kg category, 5 boxers will qualify and Sachin will get yet another chance with a box-off opportunity; where the losing quarterfinalist players will have yet another shot.
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