Indian Boxing Stars Set For Weight Change as AIBA Rejigs Olympic Divisions

New Delhi: Some Indian boxing’s most executed names, such as Amit Panchal, Shiva Thapa, and Manish Kaushik, could be shifting to better weight classes to maintain their Olympic dream as the game’s international body has scrapped their current divisions from the 2020 Tokyo Games.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has finalized the eight guys’ and five ladies’ divisions for the 2020 program.

The new weight categories finalised for men are 52kg, 57kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg, 81kg, 91kg and +91kg, whilst for women, the divisions could be 51kg, 57kg, 64kg, 69kg and 75kg.

The AIBA has also decided to introduce an evaluation machine from September this year through which groups could be allowed to project selections of most of the bouts in a match.

The trade means that Panghal, an Asian Games gold-medallist in 49kg, will now have to pass to 52kg, while Thapa and Kaushik will have to forego the 60kg division and move as much as the newly-created 63kg. Thapa is a three-time Asian Championships medallist and a global bronze-medallist, while Kaushik gained a silver medal on the Commonwealth Games remaining year.

“We had been prepared for this; we knew that weight categories would be rejigged, and the boxers might be making the transition after the Asian Championships subsequent month. There is no other manner; they need to pass up if they want a shot at an Olympic medal,” Indian Boxing’s High-Performance Director Santiago Nieva told PTI.

Panghal has already moved up after gold on the Strandja Memorial final month. Thapa is currently in Helsinki, Finland, to compete inside the thirty-eighth Gee Bee International Boxing Tournament, while Kaushik is in Germany for an education and publicity journey.

The rejigging became necessitated using the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) diktat to make bigger ladies’ boxing in Tokyo from the previous 3 weight categories — 51kg, 60kg, and 75kg — to 5.

The earlier Olympic men’s categories were 49kg, 52kg, 56kg, 60kg, 64kg, 69kg, 75kg, 81kg, 91kg and +91kg, adding up to 10 in all.

Speaking approximately the transition for guys, Nieva conceded “it might not be smooth” but insisted that the Indian camp has enough time to confirm and be ready for the brand new divisions, for you to be in the region for the World Championships in Russia, additionally the first Olympic qualifying occasion.

“The boxers will need to adapt speedily; however, it’s now not that it is an undertaking for just us. Every team will alter. We aren’t unique. And I am certain we can do it,” he stated.

National men’s teacher C A Kuttappa agreed with Nieva’s evaluation and said boxers will be counseled before the considerable change.

“It is a very fluid period. We will parent out what they (the boxers) need, what’s pleasant for them, and then, for this reason, take a name. It might not be clean for any of them because leaping weights continually takes a toll,” he said.

A slightly larger fear is boxing’s destiny as an Olympic game. With the AIBA defying the IOC’s call to take away Gafur Rakhimov as president because of allegations of financial crimes against him, there’s no readability on the sport’s qualifying program for the 2020 Games.

“All we understand is that global championships could be the primary qualifying event; past that, there may be no readability. It’s a sensitive time, and we’re all hoping for the high-quality,” said Nieva.

Japanese swim queen Rikako Ikee, the poster girl for next year’s Tokyo Olympics, has stated scuffling with her recently diagnosed leukemia has proved “thousands of instances harder” than she expected.

“It’s tens, loads, and hundreds of instances tougher than I notion,” the 18-12 months-antique said on Twitter on Wednesday.

“I haven’t been capable of devouring for extra than three days. But I don’t want to lose,” she tweeted.

Ikea stated that in the final month, she had cut short an education camp in Australia after feeling sick and identified with the infection on her go back to Japan.

The news despatched surprise waves via the carrying international and nicely-wishes have flooded in for Ikee, a real title contender at the 2020 Olympics in her home city.

Japanese media said the user’s essential bone marrow financial institution was flooded with donation inquiries after Ikee said her analysis.

About sixteen,000 human beings, along with leukemia patients, spoke back to her tweet Wednesday.

“It becomes hard and painful all through remedy for me too, but I’m leading a everyday lifestyle now. Believe you’ll surely heal,” one Twitter person wrote.

Leukemia is a most cancer of blood-forming cells. There are special varieties of leukemia, depending on the type of blood cell that turns into most cancers and whether or not it’s miles acute or chronic.

Treatment includes chemotherapy, bone marrow or stems mobile transplant, and radiotherapy, in line with Cancer Research UK.

Ikee has not found out which kind of leukemia she has, but doctors trust they detected it in its early tiers.

The swimmer, who has been hospitalized in Tokyo, tweeted closing month: “If handled nicely, it is a sickness that may be beaten.

“I will dedicate myself to my remedy and attempt to have the ability to expose an excellent stronger Rikako Ikee.”