CHINA and India qualified three more fighters each for the London Olympics from the final Asian qualifying event which concluded yesterday.
After Liu Qiang, in the lightweight division, and Beijing silver medallist Zhang Zhilei, in the super heavyweight, Olympic welterweight champion Qiong Maimaitituersun booked his place in quickfire time.
Qiong took on Mongolia’s Byamba Tuvshinbat in the final, but the Mongolian fighter was stopped in the first round.
India’s new wave also made a huge impression in Astana.
Eighteen-year-old Shiva Thapa won a points victory over Syria’s Asian Games bronze medallist Wessam Salamana in the bantamweight final.
Salamana still went into the Olympics along with Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu as Asia had been allocated three quota places in the division.
Middleweight Vijender, a bronze medallist in Beijing, and light-heavyweight Sumit Sangwan, 19, had already made sure of their places in London earlier in the tournament.
Thapa had created history by becoming the youngest Indian boxer to make it to the Olympics when he outpunched Shimizu in the semi-finals.
