Boxing
Boxer Amit Panghal will enter Tokyo Olympics as World Number 1
Indian flyweight boxer, Amit Panghal, will enter the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the world number 1 in his weight division.
Indian flyweight boxer, Amit Panghal, will enter the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the world number 1 in his weight division. This development comes after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released its Boxing Task Force (BTF) rankings on Saturday.
The 25-year-old, who competes in the men's 52kg division, will be the only Indian pugilist out of the nine qualified to enter the Tokyo Olympics as the world number 1.
This comes as a huge boost to Panghal, who is now expected to get some favourable draws in the early rounds at Tokyo. The Indian is followed by France's Billal Bennama, Algerian Mohammed Flissi and the Chinese Hu Jianguan in the second, third and fourth place, respectively.
The Uzbekistani Shakhobidin Zoirov, who has been the Achilles heel for Panghal, will be ranked fifth in the world going into the Olympics.
Amongst the other qualified Indians in the men's section, Manish Kaushik is ranked 18th in 63kg, Vikas Krishnan is ranked 10th in 69kg, while Ashish Chaudhary and Satish Kumar are ranked 9th in 75kg and 91kg, respectively.
In the women's section, Mary Kom will enter the Tokyo Olympics as world number 7 in 51kg, Simranjit Kaur is ranked 4th in 60kg, Lovlina Borgohain is 5th in 69kg, and Pooja Rani is 9th in 75kg.
