Double delight: Boxers Amit Panghal, Jaismine punch their way to Paris Olympics
World championships silver medallist boxer Amit Panghal's (51kg) remarkable comeback to the national team culminated in an Olympic berth while Jaismine Lamboria reclaimed the women's 57kg quota for India at the 2nd World Qualification Tournament here on Sunday. Panghal, India's lone world championships silver medallist, notched a hard-fought 5-0 win over China's Chuang Liu in the 51kg quarterfinals to punch a ticket to his second Olympic Games.
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Jaismine, who dropped down from 60kg, then followed suit as she outplayed Marine Camara of Mali with an identical 5-0 margin in the quarterfinals to secure a maiden appearance in the quadrennial showpiece.
India had surrendered the women's 57kg quota after holder and 2022 world championships bronze medallist Parveen Hooda was suspended for whereabout failure last month.
Both weight classes — men's 51kg and women's 57kg — had four quotas each on offer here at the last qualifying tournament.
Panghal, a multiple time Asian Championships and Commonwealth Games medallist, had only one shot at making the Paris Olympics and the 2018 Asian Games champion seized the opportunity. He looked scrappy in his opening bout but shrugged off the rust.
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
