Manipur’s ace boxer Mary Kom and Assam’s Lovlina Borgohain and Shiva Thapa has been selected among ten boxers in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Sports Authority of India (SAI) Mission Olympic Cell has included these 10 boxers.
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Mary Kom has been selected in the women’s 51 kg category.
Lovlina has been selected in the women’s 69 kg category.
Shiva Thapa has been selected in men’s 63 kg category.
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The other boxers include Amit Panghal (men’s 52 kg), Sonia Chahal (women’s 57 kg), Neeraj (women’s 57 kg), Nikhat Zareen (women’s 51 kg), Kavinder Singh Bisht (men’s 57 kg), Vikas Krishan (men’s 75 kg) and Manish Kaushik (men’s 63 kg).
At a meeting held on Wednesday chaired by SAI DG Sandip Pradhan, the athletes were chosen on the basis of various parameters.
These include global performance trends from most recent Olympic Games, World Championships, Asian Games and Asian Championships, performance of the competing international counterparts (athletes) in the last three years, performance of Indian athletes in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and their progression chart.
India has so far won two Olympic medals in boxing – Vijender Singh won the bronze in 2008 Beijing Games while Mary Kom won the bronze in 2012 London Games.
Apart from the boxers, the committee has also included 22-year-old women’s 10m air pistol shooter Yashaswini Singh Deswal in the TOPS scheme.
Deswal won the gold in individual event at the recently concluded ISSF World Cup in Rio De Janeiro along with a silver in the mixed team event. Her gold medal earned India an Olympic quota in this event.
Badminton star Sai Praneeth has also been included in the TOPS scheme.
At the recent World Championships in Basel, Praneeth lost in the semifinal to become the first Indian men’s singles player in 36 years to win a medal.