Mary Kom, Amit Panghal among 10 boxers in TOPS scheme

TIL Desk Sports/ The Sports Authority of India (SAI) Mission Olympic Cell has included 10 boxers in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The boxers include MC Mary Kom (women’s 51 kg), Amit Panghal (men’s 52 kg), Sonia Chahal (women’s 57 kg), Neeraj (women’s 57 kg), Nikhat Zareen (women’s 51 kg), Kavinder Singh Bisht (men’s 57 kg), Lovlina Borgohain (women’s 69 kg), Vikas Krishan (men’s 75 kg), Shiva Thapa (men’s 63 kg) and Manish Kaushik (men’s 63 kg).

India has so far won two Olympic medals in boxing — Vijender Singh won the bronze in 2008 Beijing Games while Mary Kom won the bronze in 2012 London Games.

At a meeting held on Wednesday chaired by SAI DG Sandip Pradhan, the athletes were chosen on the basis of the following parameters — global performance trends from most recent Olympic Games, World Championships, Asian Games and Asian Championships, performance of the competing international counterparts (athletes) in the last three years, performance of Indian athletes in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and their progression chart.