New Delhi [India], March 20 (ANI): The Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and 2021 Asian Championships bronze medallist Sakshi Choudhary put up stellar performances and registered spectacular victories to advance to the quarter-finals of the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships on the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi on Monday.
Living as much as her popularity, Lovlina dominated proceedings by unleashing her attacking prowess on her opponent Vanessa Ortiz of Mexico and registered 5-0 victory within the 75kg Round-of-16 match.
The Assam-born pugilist, who has two World Championships bronze medals beneath her belt, began the bout flawlessly, touchdown robust uppercuts and hooks to take management of the bout.
The 25-year-old carried her momentum with persistent assaults and good footwork to which her Mexican opponent had no reply. Ultimately, Lovlina emerged victorious within the totally one-sided contest to kickstart her marketing campaign with an easy victory, as per a press launch from the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).
“The opponent (Vanessa) was short in height and was attacking aggressively which is difficult to contain so my plan was to attack by keeping a distance. I am not that happy with my performance today as I think I could have done much better and I will definitely improve in my next bout. As this is my first World Championships in the 75kg category, it is a bit tough as all other boxers have been playing in this category but I believe that I can do well,” Lovlina mentioned after the match.
She shall be up in opposition to the top-seed and the final World Championships’ bronze medallist Rady Gramane of Mozambique within the subsequent spherical.
Earlier, India’s dynamic 23-year-old boxer Sakshi hardly put a foot fallacious in her commanding 5-0 win in opposition to the 2022 Asian Championships bronze medallist Zhazira Urakbayeva of Kazakhstan within the 52kg class pre-quarter-final. Utilising her attain to land relentless punches with each palms, the Haryana-born pugilist appeared to be in full management from the phrase go and prevailed within the first spherical.
The two-time World Youth champion continued to dominate her Kazakh opponent within the subsequent two rounds along with her fast motion and good attacking technique to seal the victory comfortably by unanimous choice.
“The boxer from Kazakhstan (Urakbayeva) was tough, so I thought that the fight scores may go up or down but after following the strategy of the coaches and BFI, I could play well and could further dominate the bout to win by 5-0. Moreover, the people that have come to cheer further motivated me to win. My confidence is growing as the bouts progress so through the vigor and the passion that I currently possess, I am definitely focused on clinching the gold,” Sakshi commented after the match.”The Indian will now sq. off in opposition to Wu Yu of China within the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Preeti (54kg) went down preventing 3-4 in a closely-contested encounter in opposition to final World Championships’ silver medallist Jitpong Jutamas of Thailand after the bout was reviewed. The 19-year-old Indian put up a powerful combat however, regardless of her greatest efforts, couldn’t replicate the consequence from her final bout the place she had toppled the top-seed Perijoc Lacramiora of Romania.
The two-time Olympics medallist Li Qian of China and the five-time World Championships medallist Elif Guneri of Turkey additionally secured contrasting victories within the 75kg class. While Qian defeated Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chien-Yu with the Referee Stops the Contest (RSC) verdict within the opening spherical of the bout, Guneri needed to combat arduous earlier than securing an in depth 4-1 victory in opposition to Viviane Pereira of Brazil.
Six Indians, together with the reigning world champion Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Nitu Ghanghas (48kg), Manisha Moun (57kg), Jaismine Lamboriya (60kg), Shashi Chopra (63kg) and Manju Bamboriya (66kg), will compete within the pre-quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Olympics medallists Irma Testa (57kg) of Italy, Nesthy Petecio (57kg) of Philippines, Estelle Mossely (60kg) of France and Brazil’s Beatriz Iasmim Ferreira (60kg) may even be in motion.
The prestigious occasion is witnessing the participation of 324 boxers, together with a number of Olympic medallists, from 65 nations preventing for the titles within the 12 weight classes. The event has a large prize pool of Rs 20 crore. (ANI)