Boxer helps Vietnam win fifth ticket to 2024 Olympics

ITALY- Vo Thi Kim Anh, women's 54kg, won the first ticket to the 2024 Olympics for boxing, and is also the fifth official ticket for Vietnamese sports at Paris 2024.

Boxer Kim Anh (middle) and coaches celebrate tickets to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Photo: Facebook / Nguyen Thi Tam

Kim Anh's opponent in the decisive match of the first Olympic qualifying round on the evening of March 11 at Busto Arsizio was Islem Ferchichi, a Tunisian boxer with a shorter height and arm span. In the first round, Ferchichi attacked proactively, but Kim Anh defended and counterattacked well. The Vietnamese boxer took two forehands from her opponent to the face, but responded with many backhands that landed. She was awarded 10 points by all five judges, while the Tunisian boxer only received four nines and one eight.

In the second round, Ferchichi had to attack with full strength. However, Kim Anh still defended calmly thanks to her good movement. She often had backstabs, then counterattacked and continued to be rated higher by the referees, with five points of 10, while Ferchichi only had five points of nine.

The big lead helped Kim Anh enter the third round with a smile on her face. She defended, actively moving to avoid attacks, while her opponent was forced to speed up in order to knock out or win by a margin. However, Kim Anh completely controlled the game, continuing to receive five 10 points to win 5-0, with the scores being 30-27, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26.

Vo Thi Kim Anh (blue shirt) faces Islem Ferchichi. Screenshot

In the first qualifying round of the women's 54kg Olympic boxing event, 40 boxers competed, divided into 4 groups, each group of 10 athletes. Kim Anh in group 4 went straight to the second round, where she won 4-1 against Dominican boxer Estefani Almanzar. After that, the Vietnamese boxer continued to beat Hungarian opponent Hanna Lakotar 5-0 to enter the final match against Ferchichi for a ticket to Paris.

Before Kim Anh, Vietnam had four spots at the 2024 Olympics, including Nguyen Thi That in the women's road cycling event, Trinh Thu Vinh in the women's 10m air pistol event, Le Thi Mong Tuyen in the women's 10m air rifle event, and Nguyen Huy Hoang in the men's 800m freestyle event. Huy Hoang also met the B standard in the men's 1,500m freestyle event to be on the Olympic reserve list. In addition, tennis player Nguyen Thuy Linh is almost certain to participate in the women's singles badminton event.

In boxing alone, Vietnam has had four athletes participating in the Olympics, including Nguyen Van Duong in the men's 57kg category and Nguyen Thi Tam in the women's 51kg category at Tokyo 2020, Dang Hieu Hien in the men's 48kg category and Do Tien Tuan in the men's 67kg category at Seoul 1988.

Kim Anh was born in 1997, belongs to the An Giang boxing team and the Vietnam national team. She won the gold medal at the 2022 Thailand Open and was chosen as a key boxer of Vietnam boxing competing for a ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kim Anh is one of six Vietnamese female boxers participating in the first qualifying round of the 2024 Olympics held in Italy. Previously, the hope Nguyen Thi Tam was stopped early in the first round of the women's 50 kg category when she lost 0-5 to Irish boxer Daina Moorehouse. Nguyen Thi Tam was a two-time Asian champion in 2017 and 2022, won a bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games, was the world runner-up in 2023 and has a place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. However, she has yet to return to her best form after a ligament injury at the 2023 Asian Games in China.

The referee announced that Vo Thi Kim Anh (blue shirt) won. Screenshot

In the women's 57 kg category, Nguyen Huyen Tran lost to German boxer Canan Tas in the second round. Meanwhile, Ha Thi Linh lost to Portuguese boxer Carolina Ferreira in the first round of the women's 60 kg category, Hoang Ngoc Mai lost to Azerbaijani boxer Shahla Allahverdiyeva in the first round of the women's 66 kg category, and 2023 Asian Games bronze medalist Luu Diem Quynh lost to Polish boxer Elzbieta Wojcik in the second round of the women's 75 kg category.

The first qualifying round of the 2024 Olympic boxing event, held from March 3 to March 11 in Italy, has 633 boxers, including 233 women and 400 men, from 113 countries. 21 tickets to the Olympics were awarded for six women's weight categories (50kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 66kg and 75kg) and 28 tickets were awarded for seven men's weight categories (51kg, 57kg, 63.5kg, 71kg, 80kg, 92kg and over 92kg).

This is one of seven events in the 2024 Olympic qualifying system organized by the International Boxing Association (IBA), along with the 2023 European Championship, 2023 African Championship, 2023 Asian Games, 2023 Pan American Games, 2023 Pacific Games.

Vietnamese boxers still have a chance to win tickets to the Olympics in the final event, the second qualifying round held in Thailand from May 23 to June 3. According to regulations, boxers who have already won tickets to the Olympics will not be allowed to compete in the second qualifying round.

Hieu Luong - Vnexpress.net

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