India assured of seven medals as women face depleted competition-Sports News , Firstpost

Six-time world champion Mary Kom is certainly one of India’s strongest medal bets. AFP

Dubai: A vital check of preparations for Olympic-bound boxers, the Asian Championships get underway right here on Monday with India already assured of podium finishes after seven girls boxers entered the semifinals as a result of small measurement of their respective attracts.

Six-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51kg), seeded high in her class, defending champion Pooja Rani (75kg), Anupama (+81kg), Saweety (81kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Lalbuatsaihi (64kg), and Monika (48kg) made the last-four stage when attracts have been unveiled on Sunday.

The full girls’s participation on this version is 47 boxers throughout 10 weight classes.

In all, 19 Indian boxers — 9 males and 10 girls — will stake their declare for the highest honours, which may even include an unprecedented bonus of prize cash this time.

A complete of 27 nations have been anticipated to take part however that shrunk to 17 on Sunday as a result of COVID-forced journey restrictions. Heavyweights like Uzbekistan, Philippines and Kazakhstan are amongst these in rivalry.

A complete of six Indian male boxers, together with defending champion Amit Panghal (52kg), received first-round byes into the quarterfinals.

The boxers reached right here on Saturday after a tumultuous few hours, which included a delayed touchdown and a few confusion over approval paperwork. As well as, the group needed to withdraw South Asian Video games gold-medallist Vinod Tanwar’s (49kg) identify after he examined optimistic for COVID-19 .

The build-up and the following journey appeared symbolic of the Indian boxers’ Olympic preparations this yr with COVID-19 disrupting coaching on a number of events.

“This can give us signal as to the place we stand earlier than the Olympics and the place we have to modify. It will be good for us that manner,” Indian males’s boxing’s Excessive Efficiency Director Santiago Nieva advised PTI.

India had delivered its greatest ever Asian Championship efficiency within the 2019 version in Thailand, claiming 13 medals, together with two gold, 4 silver and 7 bronze. This time too, expectations are excessive.

“We all the time come to win. We all know it is going to be a really robust competitors with many countries that includes Olympic certified boxers and lots of medal winners from the world championships. However we’re assured that our group will carry residence outcomes,” Nieva added with confidence.

From the Olympic-qualified group, defending champion Amit Panghal (52kg), final version’s silver-winner Ashish Kumar (75kg) and previous medallist Vikas Krishan (69kg) would be the ones spearheading the boys’s problem.

Among the many girls, six-time world champion M C Mary Kom, who has received 5 gold medals on this occasion prior to now, together with Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and defending champion Pooja Rani (75kg) would be the sturdy medals bets. All 4 are sure for the Tokyo Video games.

Additionally intently watched could be four-time medallist Shiva Thapa (64kg) eyeing a fifth successive podium end.
He has claimed one gold (2013), one silver (2017) and two bronze medals (2015 and 2019) in his 4 earlier appearances on the showpiece.

And this time, the Worldwide Boxing Affiliation has additionally introduced a prize fund of USD 400,000 for the occasion.
The event, which was initially deliberate in India however shifted to Dubai due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will award USD 10,000 to gold winners.

For silver-medallist, the prize cash is USD 5,000 and for each bronze medallists, it’s USD 2,500 every.

Indian Squads:

Males: Amit Panghal (52kg), Mohammad Hussamuddin (56kg), Varinder Singh (60kg), Shiva Thapa (64kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg), Sumit Sangwan (81kg), Sanjeet (91kg) and Narender (+91kg).

Girls: Monika (48kg), MC Mary Kom (51kg), Sakshi (54kg), Jasmine (57kg), Simranjeet Kaur (60kg), Lalbuatsaihi (64kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Pooja Rani (75kg), Saweety (81kg) and Anupama (+81kg).