The Asian boxers earned 14 medals in the Tokyo Olympic Games

Japan and Uzbekistan became the two Asian countries which achieved gold medals in the Tokyo Olympic Games. Among the Asian nations, Japan, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei, India, Thailand, China and Uzbekistan won at least one medal in the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Altogether 70 Asian boxers including 26 women and 44 men were able to represent their nations in the Tokyo Olympic Games. The 71^st qualified boxer, Thailand’s super talented AIBA Youth World Champion Thitisan Panmod injured before the start of the first day and could not show his amazing skills. The final number of the boxers was 289 in the Games where thirteen champions have been crowned in Tokyo after 276 impressive bouts.

Japan’s favourite Sena Irie claimed two bronze medals in the 2017 and 2018 AIBA Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships and joined to the elite national team already in 2019 before her 19^th birthday. Irie moved ahead step by step in the international rankings and following her silver medal at the Asian & Oceanian Olympic Boxing Qualifying Event, she was named as one of the favourites. The 21-year-old Japanese met in the first Olympic final at the women’s featherweight (57kg) with Philippines’ Nesthy Petecio and won her nation’s third title in their history. Japan’s further hopes as Tsukimi Namiki (51kg) and Ryomei Tanaka (52kg) both won bronze medals in Tokyo making the best ever Olympic Games in boxing for Japan.

Uzbekistan’s superstar Bakhodir Jalolov is the reigning AIBA World Champion and he is three-time ASBC Asian Champion at the super heavyweight (+91kg). He won all of his contests since August 2017 therefore he was the favourite of the king weight category in the Tokyo Olympic Games. The Uzbek star eliminated Great Britain’s veteran Frazer Clarke and met with United States’ 22-year-old Richard Torrez Jr. in the Olympic final. Jalolov produced a fantastic second and third rounds earning one title for the Uzbek boxing delegation. His AIBA World Champion teammates as Shakhobidin Zoirov (52kg) and Mirazizbek Mirzakhalilov (57kg) had surprises losses in tight contests.

Philippines qualified four boxers to the Tokyo Olympic Games but among them three earned medals in the event. Philippines never won any Olympic titles in boxing yet and from their squad Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam were near to make history for them. Both boxers lost their finals in the Games and achieved silver medals which proved the strong work of the country. Their Eumir Felix Marcial bagged bronze medal in the tough men’s middleweight (75kg) and completed his collection with this Olympic podium place.

Kazakhstan is a strong boxing power in the whole world and the country earned Olympic gold medals in all of the Games between 1996 and 2016. The Kazakhs qualified altogether nine boxers and this time the squad earned two bronze medals in Tokyo. Their Saken Bibossynov (52kg) and Kamshybek Kunkabayev (+91kg) bagged these bronze medals in Tokyo while their favourites as Ablaikhan Zhussupov (69kg), Abilkhan Amankul (75kg), and Bekzad Nurdauletov (81kg) had narrow losses in strong battles.

China had two finalists in the women’s part of the Olympic Games but Gu Hong (69kg) and unbeaten Li Qian (75kg) suffered surprise losses in their title contests. Thailand proved strong performance, all of their boxers won at least one bout against world class opponents in Tokyo. Their Sudaporn Seesondee was highly competitive for Ireland’s eventual winner Kellie Harrington in the semi-finals of the women’s lightweight (60kg) earning bronze medal in that tough category.

The Indians also had nine qualified boxers in the boxing tournament of the Tokyo Olympic Games where their women’s welterweight (69kg) boxer Lovlina Borgohain has done a surprise success in the quarter-finals and earned bronze medal. Chinese Taipei achieved its first ever medal in the history of the Games which is the result of the strong development of their women’s boxing life.