Amit Panghal qualifies for Paris Olympics

BANGKOK: World Championships silver medallist Amit Panghal qualified for the Paris Olympic as he defeated China's Chuang Liu in the 51kg quarterfinals of the 2nd World Qualification Tournament here on Sunday.

Panghal, India's lone male world championship silver medallist, notched a hard-fought 5-0 win over his Liu for a ticket to his second Olympic Games.

He thus joins the quartet of Nishant Dev (71kg), Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg). All of them have booked Olympic berths.

Panghal had only one shot at making the Paris Olympics after he lost out to world championship bronze medallist Deepak Bhoria in the selection assessment for the earlier two qualifying events, and the 2018 Asian Games champion made the most of his opportunity.

Later in the day, Jaismine Lamboria (57kg) and Sachin Siwach (57kg) will also look to secure Olympic quotas.