Amman, Jordan, March 10, 2020: India’s Sachin Kumar remained in contention to secure an Olympic spot as he defeated Nguyen Manh Cuong of Vietnam in the men’s light-heavyweight 81kg division box-off at the Asia-Oceania Tokyo Olympics boxing qualifiers in Amman, Jordan.
With 52 of the 63 spots allocated for Asia-Oceania at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics already decided, the remaining 11 places are up for grabs through box-offs between boxers who failed to reach the last four in their respective weight divisions.
Nine of these spots are for men in six weight categories while the other two are in the women’s flyweight 51kg class.
Kumar won one of the two-box offs held on Tuesday to advance to the winner-take-all bout where he will come up against Shabbos Negmatulloev of Tajikistan who defeated Jakkapong Yamkhot of Thailand in the other box-off.
So far eight Indian boxers have cemented their Olympic berths and Kumar will be hoping to be the ninth.
Among the others who have not said their goodbyes yet from Amman are Filipino duo Carlo Paalam and Irish Magno.
Paalam will come up against Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan in the men’s flyweight 52kg division and is expected to have his hands full as Bibossinov was a bronze medal winner in last year’s AIBA Men’s World Championship in Russia.
Magno takes on Sumaiva Oosimova of Tajikistan in the women’s flyweight 51kg class.
The two Filipino fighters were relegated to the box-offs after losing their quarterfinal bouts to Indian pair Amit Panghal and Mary Kom respectively.
Having qualified for the Olympics, six-time world champion Mary Kom’s run at this tournament was ended by Chang Yuan of China in the women’s flyweight semi-finals. Chang will fight Japan’s Tsukimi Namiki of Japan for the gold medal.
Meanwhile Jordanian duo Mohammad Al-Wadi and Zeyad Ishaish reached Wednesday’s finals night at the Prince Hamzeh Hall.
Al-Wadi earned a split decision over big-hitting Nguyen Van Duong of Vietnam to book a berth in the men’s featherweight 57kg final against world number two Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov of Kazakhstan.
World No. 8 Ishaish defeated world bronze medallist and reigning Asian champion Bobo-Usmon Baturov of Uzbekistan in the men’s welterweight 69kg division semi-finals. He will now come up against impressive Indian Vikas Krishnan who outpointed world bronze medallist Ablaikhan Zhussupov of Kazakhstan in the other semi-final.