Tokyo Olympics boxing qualifier cancellation disaster for Indian boxers: Santiago Nieva

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to cancel the final Tokyo Olympics world boxing qualification event scheduled for Paris in June citing challenges posed by Covid-19 is a big setback for India as it had aimed to secure four more berths from the event.

Indian boxers have qualified in nine (five men, four women) of the 13 categories from the Asian qualification event held in Jordan in March last year before the pandemic halted sporting activities globally. The four categories where Indian boxers were yet to qualify are in the men’s 57kg, 81kg and 91kg divisions and one in women.

There were 53 quota places up for grabs at the world qualification event which will now be distributed on the basis of world rankings.

“It is a disaster for us. We were looking to qualify in all four remaining slots and make it 13 Olympic berths but now that will not be possible. We might still get one berth based on rankings but that’s it. The good thing is we have nine boxers qualified from the only qualifier that came our way before the pandemic,” said Santiago Nieva, the Indian boxing team’s high-performance director.

“It has come as a big disappointment for those who were preparing for the Olympic qualifiers. We started our camp in August and went to Italy and other European countries to prepare because we wanted to qualify all berths. It has been very difficult for boxers because they got just one qualification for the Tokyo Olympics,” he said.

The European and American qualifiers will go ahead, while the Asian and African qualification events have been held.

The IOC’s Boxing Task Force (BTF) said all regions will have representation and it was not possible to hold a second qualification event for boxing.

“Following the fundamental principle of universality, one nominal quota (by name) will be allocated to the best-ranked athlete not yet qualified per region and per weight category, as per the BTF rankings upon the conclusion of each respective continental event,” the BTF said.

The boxers to qualify are Amit Panghal, Manish Kaushik, Vikas Krishan, Ashish Kumar, Satish Kumar, Mary Kom, Simranjit Kaur, Lovlina Borgohain and Pooja Rani.

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