LAHORE: Pakistan’s Olympics boxing qualifiers on Sunday ended on a disappointing note when its last boxer Jehanzeb Rizwan also faced exit at the first hurdle in the world qualifier 2 for Paris Olympics in Bangkok. New York-based Rizwan went down to Malaysian fighter Mohd Aswan Bin Che Azmi in the 71 kg preliminaries via a split decision. On Saturday, Mohammad Faheem had lost to Ireland’s Sean Marri in the 51kg preliminaries.
This will be the fifth straight Olympics which national boxers will miss. Last time national boxers featured in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Pakistani fighters began their Olympics qualifying journey last year with a poor showing in the Hangzhou Asian Games. The country’s then premier fighter Zohaib Rasheed, who has now ditched the country for seeking greener pastures in Europe, lost in the quarter-finals. A couple of months ago in Italy a World Qualifying event was held which saw Zohaib vanishing before the event start.