Amit Panghal’s return to the Indian team culminated in an Olympic quota as the world championship silver medalist boxer qualified for the Paris Games with a quarter-final victory at the 2nd World Qualification Tournament in Bangkok on Sunday. Panghal, India’s only men’s silver medalist at the world championships, recorded a hard-fought 5-0 victory over China’s Chuang Liu to progress to his second Olympic Games. He thus joins the quartet made up of Nishant Dev (71kg), Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg). They all reserved Olympic places.
Panghal had just one chance to make it to the Paris Olympics and the 2018 Asian Games champion made the most of the opportunity.
Things have been difficult for Panghal as he lost his place in the national team based on the BFI’s assessment system to world championship bronze medalist Deepak Bhoria, who competed in the previous two qualifying events.
Since the Tokyo Olympics, the only major event the Haryana boxer has competed in is the 2022 Commonwealth Games, where he won the gold medal.
He also emerged victorious at the prestigious Strandja Memorial tournament earlier this year.
The quarter-final fight started quite calmly, with both boxers trying to size each other up. A minute into the fight, Liu went after Panghal. At a height disadvantage, the Indian struggled to find his range and managed to hit a few shorts, but didn’t make much of it.
Trailing 1-4, three-time Asian Championship medalist Panghal changed his strategy. He went on the offensive, starting the second round on a positive note.
The Chinese boxer retaliated by throwing a few counter punches, but Panghal continued with his punches and ended the round on a high note, forcing all five judges to rule in his favor.
In the last three minutes, Liu changed the game and closed in on Panghal. It was an energy-sapping affair as both fighters traded punches, attacking each other with hammers and tongs. In the end, the former world number one prevailed.
Later in the day, Jaismine Lamboria (57kg) and Sachin Siwach (57kg) will also try to secure Olympic quotas.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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