Amman, Jordan, March 11, 2020: Two Iranian boxers secured their berths at Tokyo 2020 by winning their box-off bouts on the final day of the Asia-Oceania Olympic boxing qualifiers in Amman, Jordan on Wednesday.
Daniyal Shahbakhsh and Shahin Mousavi each won their fifth-sixth place box-offs at the Prince Hamzeh Hall to become the only Iranian boxers among the 63 who qualified from the March 3-11 competition.
Teenager Shahbakhsh defeated veteran Hong Kong boxer Rex Tso Sing-yu in a unanimous decision in the men’s featherweight (57kg) division while Mousavi defeated Mongolia’s Erdene Otgonbaatar in the men’s middleweight (75kg) class.
The 19-year-old southpaw Shahbakhsh’s victory was all the more impressive as he had suffered a bad eye injury in his quarterfinal defeat to Kazakhstan’s Serik Temirzhanov and there had been some doubt he would front up for the box-off.
A total of 11 boxers – nine men and two women – booked their Olympic spots through the box-offs.
The nine-day competition ended with 63 boxers - 52 who reached the semi-finals in 13 categories and 11 from the box-offs - qualifying for the Tokyo Games.
In all, 41 men in eight weight divisions and 22 women in five weight classes qualified.
Also making it through the box-offs were Tajikistan pair Bakhodur Usmonov in the men’s lightweight 63kg class and Shabbos Negmatulloev in the men’s light heavyweight 81kg division.
QUALIFIED THROUGH BOX-OFFS
MEN
FLYWEIGHT (48-52kg)
Saken Bibossinov, Kazakhstan
Alex Winwood, Australia
FEATHERWEIGHT (52-57kg)
Daniyal Shahbakhsh, Iran
Chatchai-Decha Butdee, Thailand
LIGHTWEIGHT (57-63kg)
Bakhodur Usmonov, Tajikistan
Manish Kaushik, India
WELTERWEIGHT (63-69kg)
Sewonrets Okazawa, Japan
MIDDLEWEIGHT (69-75kg)
Shahin Mousavi, Iran
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT (75-81kg)
Shabbos Negmatulloev, Tajikistan
WOMEN
FLYWEIGHT (48-51kg)
Tursunov Rakhimova, Uzbekistan
Irish Magno, Philippines
The 63 Olympic places were filled by the following National Olympic Committees:
9 - Kazakhstan, India
7 – Uzbekistan
6 – China
5 – Jordan, Australia
4 - Chinese Taipei, Thailand
3 – Japan
2 - South Korea, Philippines, Iran, Tajikistan
1 - New Zealand, Mongolia, Vietnam