Six-time world champion Mary Kom heading to Tokyo Olympics

Mary Kom was among the eight Indian boxers who qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Six-time world champion Mary reached the Asian Qualifiers' semi-finals to book an Olympic spot

Amman (Jordan): Six-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51kg) secured an Olympic berth by advancing to semi-finals of the Asian Qualifiers in Amman on Monday (March 9), taking the total number of the country's Tokyo-bound pugilists to eight.

Second-seeded Mary Kom notched up a comfortable 5-0 win over Philippines' Irish Magno in her quarter-final bout for a ticket to her second Olympic Games. She won a bronze in the 2012 London Olympics when women's boxing was first introduced at the showpiece.

The 37-year-old will square off against China's Yuan Chang in the semi-finals. Chang is a former Youth Olympics champion.

Mary put out a near-perfect performance against the very spirited Magno. The Manipuri dictated the pace of the bout, drawing from her huge reservoir of experience to put Magno on the backfoot with a very effective counter-attacking strategy.

Meanwhile, in the last Indian bout of the day, world bronze-medallist Simranjit Kaur (60kg) upstaged second seed Namuun Monkhor of Mongolia 5-0 to secure her first Olympic place.

With this, the number of Indian boxers securing Olympic berths went up to eight after Amit Panghal (52kg), Satish Kumar (+91kg), Pooja Rani (75kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and Ashish Kumar (75kg) advanced to the semi-finals on Sunday.