The second leg of the Boxing Road to Tokyo series – the Asian/Oceanian Qualifying Event – will be held in Amman, Jordan, from 3 to 11 March. The competition will be staged at the Prince Hamza Hall, where 251 boxers (174 men and 77 women) from 40 nations are expected to compete for 63 Tokyo 2020 quota places.
The 63 Tokyo 2020 quota places to be distributed in Amman:
| Men | Woman | ||
| Weight categories (kg) | Quota places | Weight categories (kg) | Quota places |
| Fly (48kg to 52kg) | 6 | Fly (48kg to 51kg) | 6 |
| Feather (52kg to 57kg) | 6 | Feather (54kg to 57kg) | 4 |
| Light (57kg to 63kg) | 6 | Light (57kg to 60kg) | 4 |
| Welter (63kg to 69kg) | 5 | Welter (64kg to 69kg) | 4 |
| Middle (69kg to 75kg) | 5 | Middle (69 kg to 75kg) | 4 |
| Light Heavy (75kg to 81kg) | 5 | ||
| Heavy (81kg to 91kg) | 4 | ||
| Super Heavy (+91kg) | 4 | ||
| TOTAL | 41 | 22 |
Teams are already arriving in Amman, to acclimatise and finalise their preparation ahead of the event. It’s not the first time that Asian and Oceanian boxers have met in an Olympic qualifier, and some of the best athletes in the world are here aiming for an Olympic spot.
Asia is indeed well known for being a boxing powerhouse, and statistics confirm it: athletes from the continent claimed 13 medals at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, and 12 in Beijing four years later. Since women’s boxing events were added to the Olympic programme, Asian boxers have earned a total of 16 medals in London, and 17 at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
Furthermore, Asian boxers finished atop of the list at all recent world-level competitions. Last year, at the World Men’s Elite Boxing Championships held in Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation, they pocketed 15 out of the 32 medals. Asian women boxers’ results are in line with the trend too, as they obtained 3 gold, 4 silver and 10 bronze medals at the 2019 Women’s World Boxing Championships in Ulan-Ude, Russian Federation, and 8 out of 10 gold medals at the 2018 Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, India.
Nations to watch
Uzbekistan comes first in the list of “nations to watch” in Amman, as their team finished top of the medal standings both at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and at the 2019 World Men’s Elite Boxing Championships. Kazakhstan is certainly their biggest challenger: the Central Asian boxing power has claimed gold medals at all Olympic Games editions since the country’s first participation in 1996, and Tokyo 2020 is in their sights. In Amman they will face strong contenders from China, the Philippines, Chinese Taipei and Mongolia.
India is also in the spotlight. Since the country won its first Olympic boxing medal back in 2008, the sport has been growing steadily, and their team is now considered one of the strongest in the world. IOC Boxing Taskforce Athlete Ambassador Mary Kom (51kg) will be the team’s biggest hope during this Asian/Oceanian Qualifying Event.
Oceania’s Australia and New Zealand are also among the nations to watch: 13 Australian athletes and 9 New Zealand amateur boxers have set out on their biggest assignment of their boxing careers as they chase qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Games. There are great expectations for David Nyika, the New Zealand amateur boxer, who won the men’s light heavyweight division at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the men’s heavyweight division at the 2018 edition. We’re going to see him in Amman also as an Athlete Ambassador, and so he will be involved in interesting interviews and exciting activation events. We shouldn’t forget to mention Japan, the next Olympic Games host nation, which has developed a strong boxing team over the last 10 years.
Follow the action live
The event will be live on the Olympic Channel. In addition to live streaming with commentary in English and French, highlights and news, the Olympic Channel will present a live studio show prior to the quarter-final, semi-final and final matches of each event.
News, photos and results will be posted online on the dedicated Amman Qualifier page of the Athlete365 Boxing Corner platform. We encourage fans to join the conversation online using the hashtag #Boxing.
Event schedule
The session schedules for each continental qualifier can be found here.
