Manish Kaushik seals 9th boxing quota for Tokyo Games

Boxer Manish Kaushik (63kg) on Wednesday became the ninth Indian boxer to bag a quota for the Tokyo Olympic Games after defeating Australia's Harrison Garside in a box-off at the ongoing Asian/Oceanian Olympic Qualifiers.

Kaushik defeated second seed Garside 4-1 to book his maiden ticket to the Olympic Games. It was a repeat of the 2018 Commonwealth Games (CWG) final. However, it was Kaushik who ended up on the winning side this time around.

Both Kaushik and Garside had lost in the quarter-finals.

Later, Sachin Kumar lost 0-5 to Shabbos Negmatulloev of Tajikistan in the 81kg box-off final.

Earlier in the day, Commonwealth Games champion Vikas Krishan (69kg), who had already sealed an Olympic spot, signed off with a silver medal after an eye injury forced him to pull out of the final where he was slated to take on Jordan's Zeyad Eashash.

The other Indian boxers who have bagged Olympic quotas so far are Simranjit Kaur (60 kg), Mary Kom (51kg), Amit Panghal (52kg), Pooja Rani (75kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg). IANS