Amit Panghal, Jaismine Lamboria win Paris Olympics quota places

Amit Panghal and Jaismine Lamboria secured Paris Olympics quota places in the men's 51kg and women's 57kg categories respectively as they reached the semifinals of the World Olympic Boxing Qualifier in Bangkok on Sunday.

The 28-year-old Indian boxer beat Chinese boxer Liu Chuang 5-0 in the quarterfinal.

Panghal became the second Indian male boxer to book a Paris Olympics quota. After Jaismine's qualification, India now have six boxers qualified for the Paris Olympics. She is the fourth Indian women's boxer to confirm the ticket to Paris.

After receiving a bye in the first round, the former World Championships silver medallist won the next two rounds to stay in contention for a quota place at the final qualifying event.

He eventually got the better of China's Liu to confirm the berth.

In the pre-quarterfinal, Panghal, an Asian Games gold medallist, defeated Inkyu Kim of South Korea 5-0. In the next round, the erstwhile world number one survived a late onslaught from Mexico's Mauricio Ruiz before winning the bout.

This will be Panghal's second bid for an Olympic medal. He will look to better his performance after a below-par show at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where Panghal, then world no. 1, was stunned by Rio Games silver-medallist Yuberjen Martinez 1-4 in the pre-quarterfinal.

Earlier, Nishant Dev confirmed his spot in the Paris Olympics after he beat Moldova’s Vasile Cebotari 5-0 in the men’s 71kg event.

Sachin Siwach (57kg), however, lost 0-5 against Kyrgyzstan’s Munarbek Seiitbek Uulu in a box-off for a quota place.

Jaismine, a reserve in 60kg for the Bangkok qualifier, was accommodated to 57kg after she cut down three kilograms in India’s bid to reclaim the quota place after Parveen Hooda lost it about two weeks ago due to her whereabouts failure.

Jaismine outsmarted Marine Camara of Mali 5-0 to secure her spot.

Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) are the other women's boxers who qualified for the biggest sporting spectacle on the earth.