The Indian boxing contingent got affected for cancellation of Tokyo Olympics

It was a disappointment, for the fans as well as the Indian boxers when they came to know that the final world Olympic qualifier that was to be held in Paris got cancelled. It was after a year when the Indian boxers ultimately secured nice places from the quota for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. India had the hope of sending one boxer from each of the 13 categories at the Olympics. But the expectation received a jolt as the BTF or Boxing Task Force decided that the final qualifier that was to be held in Paris, France in 2021 June will be cancelled. 

Now a total number of 53 quota places will be granted across the Americas, Africa, Oceania/Asia and Europe. This will be granted to the boxers who are best ranked who are not yet qualified per region. India had a bad miss on qualifying in the category of men’s 51 kg, 81 kg and 91 kg. India has also missed women’s category of 57 kg at Jordan in 2020. India has now planned to send only nine of the boxers to Tokyo. 

Gaurav Solanki who is an Indian boxer lost out to earn the Olympic quota in the 57 kg men’s category at Jordan with a very small loss to Uzbekistan’s Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov who is a gold medalist in the first round. Indian boxer Sachin Kumar also lost in the quarter-finals in 81 kg men’s category along with that Naman Tanwar also had a defeat in the first round in 91 kg. It meant that the boxing contingent of India had high hopes of securing each quota in all these categories in Paris. Talking about women’s category of 57 kg, Indian boxer Sakshi Chaudhary had a loss in the quarter-finals in the category of 57 kg at Jordan.   

But the biggest knock downfalls on the men’s category of 57 kg with the presence of silver medalist 2019 Asian championships and quarter-finalist of the world championship Kavinder Bisht, Sunil Siwach, champion of 2018 CWG Gaurav Solanki and bronze medalist 2017 World Championship  Gaurav Bidhuri. 

The 57 kg women’s category will feel the same hard done with the likes Indian boxer Sonia Chahal except for Sakshi Chaudhary. The hopes of Solanki and Chahal got curtailed due to their narrow losses in Jordan but Nieva was very sure of them securing the quota in Paris. 

As per the interview in The Indian Express given by the high-performance director of the Indian boxing Mr Santiago Nieva, it is very much disappointing with the development because the management was planning for the world qualifiers and they also had high hopes for qualifying more boxers for the Olympics. But he also stated that it is understandable that these are the unparalleled decisions and time that needs to be taken. He also added that they are fortunate because of the nine boxers being qualified from the introductory opportunity that they got. He also had hope that there is still a chance but that does not have to be speculated as that will be decided by IOC and BTF in the coming times. 

BTF also gave a statement this Monday claiming that this decision ensures an all-new redistribution pathway which is deployed on the on-field international results that have been recorded over the last four years starting from 2017 to 2021.