Determined to keep the Olympic dream alive despite the long-standing administrative mess, a spirited Indian boxing team, featuring the likes of M C Mary Kom and Shiva Thapa, will take off on Monday night for the Asian Qualifiers in Qian'an City, China. Ten men and three women form the 13-strong team which will be in action from March 25. In the men's competition, only the top three boxers in each weight category will make the Olympic cut with the third spot decided via a box-off between the two bronze-medallists. In the women's draw, only the gold and silver medal winners will qualify for Rio de Janeiro. In the absence of a recognised federation, the Indians will once again compete under the flag of the International Boxing Association (AIBA). "It is going to be a very tough tournament because not many from the Asian region qualified during last year's World Championships. I am expecting around 30 countries and more than 250 boxers to be there at this event," national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu told PTI ahead of the team's departure.
Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Paramjeet Samota (+91kg), Manpreet Singh (91kg) and teen sensation Shiva Thapa (56kg) notched up contrasting wins to enter the semi-finals on a mixed opening day for Indian boxers in the Winners' International tournament in Belgrade, Serbia.
Ashish Kumar continued his brilliant form at the 2022 Thailand Open international boxing tournament as he entered the finals alongside India's three other pugilists in Phuket on Wednesday.
Two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen (50kg) bowed out of the Olympic Games after a shock defeat to Asian Games gold-medallist Wu Yu of China on Thursday.
Asian champion Pooja Rani (75kg) and the seasoned Vikas Krishan (69kg) became the first set of Indian boxers to qualify for this year's Tokyo Olympics by advancing to the semi-finals of the continental qualifiers, in Amma, on Sunday. While fourth-seeded Rani notched up a facile 5-0 win over Thailand's Pornnipa Chutee, Krishan endured a tough one against third-seeded Japanese Sewonrets Okazawa before also prevailing in a unanimous verdict against the Asian silver-medallist.
Lovlina Borgohain is aware that fierce competition awaits her at the Paris Olympics but the ace Indian boxer is quietly confident of snaring a second successive Games medal, having found considerable success in her new category, which is also closer to her natural body weight.
Indian boxers will get a final chance to book their ticket to Paris during the second World Olympic Boxing Qualifier, scheduled to be held in Bangkok from May 23 to June 3. Between 45 and 51 boxers will qualify from the Bangkok meet.
The change means that Panghal, an Asian Games gold-medallist in 49kg, will now have to move to 52kg, while Thapa and Kaushik will have to forego the 60kg division and move up to the newly-created 63kg. Thapa is a three-time Asian Championships medallist and a world bronze-medallist, while Kaushik won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games last year.
Six-time World Championships gold medallist Mary Kom and former World Championships bronze medallist Gaurav Bidhuri staved off tough challenges in their respective weight categories to make the finals, at the 23rd President's Cup.
The Indian boxers' campaign in the Asian Olympic Qualifiers was off to a disappointing start with all three in action, on Saturday, including former Commonwealth Games champion Manoj Kumar (64kg), bowing out with opening round losses in Qian'an, China.
World Boxing Council Asian champion Neeraj Goyat was the lone Indian left in fray for an Olympic berth after he entered the semi-finals even as other two bowed out following first round losses in the International Boxing Association's Olympic Qualifying Tournament for professional boxers in Vargas, Venezuela.
His wards might be dreaming big ahead of the London Games but national boxing coach Gurbux Singh Sandhu sees no harm in it, saying the Indian pugilists are not "pompous" but have "self belief".
In a huge relief for India's Commonwealth Games contingent, its boxers were cleared of any doping violation, but they remained under the scanner for breaching the Games' strict 'no needle' policy.
India's dismal performance in the recent Olympic Qualifiers for boxing has triggered a coaching crisis just four months before the Paris Games as High Performance Director Bernard Dunne has stepped down while foreign coach Dmitry Dmitruk is likely to be shown the exit door very soon.
'I'm both excited and nervous because people have a lot of expectations from me.'
Indian boxer Gaurav Bidhuri (52kg) is fast making a name for himself at the International Boxing Association's semi-professional World Series of Boxing, churning out three consecutive wins for his franchise Italia Thunder in the ongoing season.
The governing body of amateur boxing (AIBA) has given recognition to a newly-elected national federation in India, paving the way for fighters to compete under their national flag at the Asian Games which starts this week.
Indian boxers training in Italy for next month's Olympic qualifiers were given the option of flying out early due to the novel Coronavirus threat in that country but the team has decided to stay put as its training base in Assisi is "far" from the epicentre of the outbreak.
Bantamweight boxer Shiva Thapa put up an impressive show against Chinese Taipei's Li Lin Yen to book his place in the quarter-finals of the Asian Championships in Amman, Jordan on Friday.
The Indian men's boxing team's final campaign at the 35th Boxam International Tournament in Castellon, Spain was derailed by a positive COVID-19 case in the side, resulting in three withdrawals from the summit clashes.
Vikas Krishan has no qualms admitting that he has been indisciplined and too reliant on luck in the past, problems that he claims to have fixed ahead of the Tokyo Games.
Fernandez evaluated India's chances at the upcoming Summer Games.
Back in 2008, Vijender became the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal.
The team reached Dubai on Saturday after being held up for over two hours in the flight, of which close to one hour was mid air
Indian boxers will return empty-handed from the World Championships for the first time in four years after none of their five quarter-finalists made it to the semi-finals in the biennial mega-event, in Almaty, Kazkakhastan, on Wednesday. After the defeats of fourth seed Shiva Thapa (56kg) and sixth seed Manoj Kumar in the afternoon, Vikash Malik (60kg) and Sumit Sangwan (81kg) also lost their quarter-final bouts in the evening session.
Mary Kom had also won a gold medal at the India Open boxing tournament in May
India likely to lose Olympic boxing quota as WADA suspends Parveen for three whereabout failures
He will face Turki Abuquthailah of Kuwait in the Round of 16.
Two-time world champion Zareen defeated the two-time Asian Champion Nguyen by unanimous decision.
Nine Indians punched their way into the finals of their respective categories in the Golden Glove of Vojvodina, an international boxing tournament in Kikinda, Serbia.
The national trials for the event were scheduled to be held on August 16 and 17 in Patiala but were postponed till the end of this month with neither the boxers nor the coaches having any clue about the reasons.
Indian boxers continue to show their prowess on the international stage. This time it was youngsters Aditya Maan and Ashish who made the country proud at the AIBA Junior World Boxing Championships in Kiev, Ukraine.
Vikas Krishan Yadav has learned from the bitterest experience that he can leave nothing to chance in the Olympic ring and it is a lesson the Indian boxer will carry with him to the Rio Games.
World Championship medallist Amit Panghal and Sachin Siwach struck gold at the 75th Strandja Memorial tournament.
With seven gold medals and 47 points, India emerged champions at the Goa International Boxing Championship.
Parveen, the 2022 world championship bronze medallist, went down to Lin via a 5-0 unanimous verdict.
Gurcharan Singh tells Laxmi Negi/Rediff.com why he deserted the Indian team and the reason for wanting to return to the country after 15 years.
World champion Nikhat Zareen is keen to use the experience gained in the recently-concluded global event to qualify for the 2024 Olympics.
Naveen and Hussamuddin storm into pre-quarters at IBA World Boxing championships
'I had serious doubts that my statement on video may not have been recorded in entirety or may have been altered in an attempt to protect the accused and thus I requested for a copy of the video recording. However members of the oversight committee flatly turned down my request.'
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