Simranjeet Kaur sails through to the quarter-finals at the Asia-Oceania Olympic Boxing Qualifiers

Modified Mar 05, 2020 17:44 IST

What's the story?

Simranjit Kaur continued India's dominating run at the Asia-Oceania zone Olympic Boxing Qualification Tournament by sailing through to the quarter-final's in the women's 60 kg weight category. She is now just one win away from qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020.

In case you didn't know

Qualification for the boxing events at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 is determined by the performances at the four Continental Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (Africa, Americas, Asia-Oceania, and Europe) and at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament, all of which are scheduled to take place between February and May 2020.

The Asia-Oceania zone qualification tournament is being held at the Prince Hamzah Hall in Amman, Jordan from 3rd March to 11th March 2020. The qualifiers are being held across 13 weight categories (8 for men and 5 for women).

The Indian women's boxing team is being represented by MC Mary Kom (51 kg), Sakshi Chaudhary (57 kg), Simranjit Kaur (60 kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) across the 5 weight categories in these qualifiers.

At these qualifiers, for the women boxers, there are six qualifying spots up for grabs in the 51 kg weight category while there are four qualifying spots each in the other four weight categories.

Also Checkout: the full Olympics 2020 Schedule

Heart of the matter

Simranjit Kaur, the 2018 World Championship bronze medalist, defeated Rimma Volossenko of Kazakhstan in a pre-quarter-final encounter in the women's 60 kg weight category at the Asia-Oceania zone Olympic Boxing Qualification Tournament in Amman, Jordan.

Although the boxer from Punjab won the bout with a unanimous 5-0 verdict from the judges, it was a very close encounter that was decided in the final round.

Lajawab Simran!👏@Simranjitboxer showed incredible fighting spirit to pack off Volossenko Rimma🇰🇿 with a unanimous decision to storm into the quarters of the #OlympicQualifiers in the 60kg.1⃣ win away from the qualifications now!#PunchMeinHaiDum #boxing #Jordan #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/SN6JyLCMX9
— Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) March 4, 2020

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Simranjit was quick off the blocks in the 1st round and totally dominated her opponent with eye-catching blows both in terms of volume and velocity. Her performance impressed all the judges and she got a unanimous 5-0 verdict in the first round with all the judges scoring the round 10-9 in the Indian's favour.

Volossenko came into the second round with a changed tactic as she changed the nature of the fight from a boxing bout into a brawl, not giving any opportunity to Simranjit to go on the attack. This turned to be decisive as the Kazakh boxer managed to reverse the decision of the first round by getting a unanimous 5-0 verdict in her favour in the second round with all the judges scoring the round 10-9 again but this time in the Kazakh boxer's favour.

With the bout in the balance, Simranjit again came out aggressively in the final round but the Kazakh boxer stood by her approach. It was a cagey affair with punches being thrown back and forth. But it was the Indian who came up with the more telling blows and managed to win the bout with a unanimous 5-0 verdict in her favour with the score reading 29-28 in all the judges cards.

This win continued India's all-win record at the qualifiers till now with Gaurav Solanki and Ashish Kumar winning their Round of 32 encounters yesterday and Sakshi Chaudhary and Simranjit winning their pre-quarter-final encounters today.