Amit Panghal clinches Paris Olympics spot

Amit Panghal's comeback to the Indian team culminated in an Olympic quota as the world championships silver medallist boxer qualified for the Paris Games with a quarterfinal win in the 2nd World Qualification Tournament in Bangkok on Sunday, 2 June.

Panghal, India's lone male world championship silver medallist, notched a hard-fought 5-0 win over China's Chuang Liu for a ticket to his second Olympic Games.

He thus joins the quartet of Nishant Dev (71kg), Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg). All of them have booked Olympic berths.

Panghal had only one shot at making the Paris Olympics and the 2018 Asian Games champion made the most of his opportunity.

The going has been tough for Panghal as he lost his place in the national team on the basis of BFI's evaluation system to world championship bronze medallist Deepak Bhoria, who competed at the earlier two qualifying events.

Since the Tokyo Olympics, the only big-ticket event that the Haryana boxer has competed in was the Commonwealth Games in 2022, where he won the gold medal.

He also emerged victorious at the prestigious Strandja Memorial tournament earlier this year.

The quarterfinal bout began on a rather sedate note with both boxers trying to assess each other. One minute into the bout, Liu went after Panghal. At an height disadvantage, the Indian struggled to find his range, and he did mange to land a couple of scoring shorts but didn't engage much.

Trailing 1-4, Panghal, a three-time Asian Championship medallist, changed his strategy. He went on the offensive, beginning the second round on a positive note.

The Chinese boxer retaliated by launching some counterattacking blows but Panghal continued with his punches and ended the round on a high, forcing all five judges to rule in his favour.

In the last three minutes, Liu changed his game and moved closer to Panghal. It was an energy sapping affair as both fighters traded punches, going hammer and tongs at each other. In the end, the former world number one prevailed.

Later in the day, Jaismine Lamboria (57kg) and Sachin Siwach (57kg) will also look to secure Olympic quotas.