Manish Kaushik makes it a fine nine!

India's Manish Kaushik (left) wins the box-off against Australia's Harrison Garside in Jordan yesterday to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. pic/IOA

World bronze-medallist Manish Kaushik (63kg) on Wednesday became the ninth Indian boxer to book an Olympic berth with a brutal box- off win at the Asian Qualifiers as the country recorded its best-ever qualifying numbers for the quadrennial showpiece. Kaushik defeated Commonwealth Games champion and second seed Harrison Garside 4-1 to make the cut for Tokyo 2020 after a draining showdown which left the Australian with a bloodied face and the Indian exhausted by painful hits to his ribs.

However, there was no golden finish to the qualifying flourish as Olympic-bound finalists Vikas Krishan (69kg) and Simranjit Kaur (60kg) ended with silver medals for varied reasons.

While Krishan had to pull out owing to an eye injury, world bronze-winner Kaur was outwitted by Asian Games champion Yeonji Oh of South Korea. It was a repeat of the 2018 CWG final for Kaushik; only this time, the 24-year-old Indian ended up on the winning side. The top six in the 63kg category were entitled to Olympic berths in the ongoing event and Kaushik and Garside were taking a second shot at qualification after losing in the quarterfinals.

"It was my dream to play at the Olympics and today it has finally come true for me and my family. My coaches have made a huge contribution in this," Kaushik, an Armyman, said after the win. "I sustained an injury in the opening round itself but my coaches told me to keep fighting hard and I did. It got me the result that I wanted," he added.

The other Indians to have qualified for Tokyo Olympics are M C Mary Kom (51kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Pooja Rani (75kg), Amit Panghal (52kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg). Before this, India's highest qualifying number for an Olympic Games was eight for the 2012 edition in London. That too was achieved over more than one qualifying tournament.

However, in a disappointing result, first-timer Sachin Kumar (81kg) was pummelled by Shabbos Negmatulloev of Tajikistan in his box-off final to bow out of contention for an Olympic place at this event. "We still have the World Qualifiers in May and I am confident that India will qualify in all 13 categories. Our mission is to win Olympic medals and these 9 qualifications are an indication of the potential that Indian boxers posses," said Boxing Federation of India President Ajay Singh.

Earlier, Olympic-bound Commonwealth Games champion Krishan signed off with a silver medal after an eye injury forced him to pull out of the final on Wednesday. Krishan, a world and Asian medallist, was to take on Jordan's Zeyad Eashash in the summit clash. "He did not compete because of the cut," India's High Performance Director Santiago Nieva told PTI.

"It's been overall a fantastic performance and I couldn't have been happier," he said of the Indian show. Krishan had defeated second seed Ablaikhan Zhussupov of Kazakhstan, a two-time world bronze-medallist, in the semifinals on Tuesday.

He sustained a cut on his left eyelid in the second round of the bout before claiming a split decision victory.

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