ISHAISH STUNS TOP SEED TO REACH OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS FINAL
Mar 10, 2020
Zeyad Ishaish showed why is regarded as one of the world’s hottest amateur boxing properties by stunning the Welterweight 69kg top seed and reaching the final of the Asian/Oceanian Olympic qualifiers in Amman.
With his spot for the Tokyo 2020 Games already secure courtesy of reaching the last four Ishaish, the world No 8, put down an early marker for this summer’s gold medal by beating World bronze medallist and reigning Asian champion, Bobo-Usmon Baturov, of Uzbekistan.
“I told my son Rashid last night that I will reach the final and become the No. 1 in Asia so I didn’t want to let him down,” said Ishaish. “I’ve shown today that I can be the best and, God Willing, I will win gold medal for Jordan this summer.”
He will fight the impressive Vikas Kirshan, of India, in the final after the former professional outpointed world bronze medallist, Ablaikhan Zhussupov, of Kazakhstan.
Four other Jordanians have also booked their Tokyo 2020 berths courtesy of reaching the semi-finals, but Zeyad’s older brother Hussein and teammate Obada Al-Kesbeh, both Olympians in 2016, lost narrow judges’ verdicts to miss out on the final.
Hussein won the first round against the tournament’s Heavyweight 91kg top seed, Vassilly Levit, but the Kazakh turned the screw in rounds two and three to secure a split decision win. He will fight New Zealand’s second seed, David Nyika, in Wednesday’s final.
Al-Kesbeh came out firing too in a brilliant first round against Lightweight 63kg fourth seed, Zakir Safiullin, but the Kazakh composed himself to win rounds two and three to take the narrowest of split decisions.
Safiullin will fight Uzbekistan’s Elnur Abduraimov who booked his final spot with a win over Mongolia’s Chinzorig Baatarsukh.
Earlier in the morning, World No. 1, Amit Panghal booked his place in the Flyweight 52kg final with a victory over China’s Jianguan Hu. His opponent will be Thailand’s World Youth Champion Thitisan Panmot, 19, who stunned reigning World Champion, Shakhobidin Zoirov, of Uzbekistan.
The morning session’s women’s action was spectacular, with World No. 1 and reigning World Champion in the Featherweight (57kg) category, Yu-Ting Lin, of Chinese Taipei, beating Australia’s Commonwealth Games gold medallist Skye Nicolson, to book her final face-off tomorrow against Japan’s Sene Irie, who beat Korea’s Aeji Im.
First will meet third seed in a replay of 2019 women’s 69kg World Championship final when top seed Nien-Chin Chen, of Chinese Taipei, will fight China’s Hong Gu after the they beat Baison Manikon, of Thailand, and Lovlina Borgohain, of India, respectively in this morning’s semi-finals.