Mehmood loses to Chinese boxer in Amman qualifiers

KARACHI: Pakistan’s experienced boxer Mehmood-ul-Hasan lost to China’s Tuoheta Erbieke Tanglatihan in the 75 kilogramme preliminaries of the Asia and Oceania Qualifying round for 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Jordan on Tuesday.

At the Prince Hamza Hall Al-Hussein Youth City Amman, Mehmood failed to live up to the billing, going down on points against the Chinese fighter.

On Wednesday (today), Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif will meet Indonesia’s Suguro Aldoms in the men’s flyweight (52kg) preliminaries. In this weight as many as 20 pugilists are featuring. Asif is confident and says he has worked hard. “I am upbeat about my succes as I have trained hard,” Asif told ‘The News’ from Jordan on Tuesday.

In welterweight (69kg), Pakistan’s Gul Zeb got bye in the first round. He will face China’s Maimaititu Ersun Qiong in the pre-quarter-final on March 6. Because of lack of resources, Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) was able to field only three boxers in the qualifiers. The government did not offer financial support to the national fighters for this important assignment. So far not a single athlete has been backed by the state for Olympics qualification. National boxers underwent a couple of months training at the Army Sports Complex, Rawalpindi, with the PBF bearing all the expenses.

Pakistan last featured in Olympic boxing competitions in 2004 Athens Games. Pakistan boxers will have another chance of qualifying for Olympics when they appear in the World Qualifying round to be held in Paris from May 13 to 20 at the Grand Dome, Villebon-sur-Yvette. It will be open only to those athletes who will not have not qualified by then.

In the Jordan event, men are competing in eight and women are featuring in five weight categories. Oceania nations, including Australia and New Zealand, are also part of the qualifiers.

India have fielded their full strength (eight men and five women). They underwent six months training in Italy before proceeding to Jordan. The continental qualifiers were, earlier, scheduled to be held in Wuhan, China, from February 3-14 but were postponed and later shifted to Amman due to outbreak of the deadly coronavirus.