New Delhi [India], March 24 (ANI): On the again of excellent campaigns, India and China can be main the sector within the finals of the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship with 4 high pugilists from India and 5 from China setting their sights on clinching the gold on the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex right here over the following two days.
For India, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion Nitu Ghanghas, reigning World champion Nikhat Zareen, Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and three-time Asian medallist Saweety Boora can be competing within the finals.
Wu Yu (52kg), Yang Chengyu (63kg), Yang Liu (66kg), Wang Lina (81kg) and Huang Hsiao-Wen (54kg) are the 5 Chinese pugilists who can be aiming for gold.
Kicking off India’s gold medal cost, the two-time World Youth champion Nitu (48kg) will take to the ring towards the two-time Asian Championships bronze medallist Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg of Mongolia within the finals on Saturday. The 22-year-old Indian, who’s competing in her second World Championships, has had a stellar marketing campaign thus far, recording three victories by Referee Stops Contest (RSC) verdicts and can look to increase that momentum within the closing.
“Winning against Kazakhstan (yesterday) was the most pressurising since I lost the last time (in the World Championships quarter-finals) and after winning, I do feel confident. I can see a lot of improvement in my game as earlier I used to play just a single kind of game but now I know how to seamlessly change my techniques according to my opponent, and I am sure I’ll continue to play like this going further. I haven’t seen the bouts of my opponent for the finals but I will see her bouts and I will prepare accordingly. As far the aggression is concerned it will depend on the fight,” mentioned Nitu.
Determined to defend her title and win back-to-back World Championships gold medals, Nikhat (50kg) can be squaring off towards the two-time Asian champion and 2018 Asian Games bronze medallist Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam within the closing on Sunday. Despite shifting to the sunshine flyweight class, the distinguished pugilist from Telangana has comfortably dominated all of her opponents thus far together with the African champion Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria, the two-time Worlds bronze medallist Chuthamat Raksat of Thailand and the Rio Olympics bronze medallist Ingrit Valencia of Colombia.
“This is the first competition in my boxing career where I am fighting a total of six bouts, especially back to back and all against experienced and tough opponents. However, I am really happy by the calibre of the performance I am showing here. I have placed my way into the finals even in the 50kg weight category and there is just one more match to go to win and defend my title. As I am moving forward my game is improving so I hope to give my best in the finals,” mentioned Nikhat.
Having secured two World Championships bronze medals in 2018 and 2019, Lovlina (75kg) can be giving it her all to make sure that her third medal within the competitors is gold when she takes on the two-time Commonwealth Games medallist Caitlin Parker of Australia within the closing on Sunday. Similar to Nikhat, the Telangana-born pugilist has additionally modified her weight class and has been on the high of her recreation all through the event, defeating the extremely embellished Li Qian of China within the semi-finals on Thursday.
“When I started playing in the 75kg category, I played nationals games, national championship and Asian Championship. Now coming to the present, all the games I have till yet played in this category have gone smoothly and I feel that I am more comfortable in this category as I don’t need to control myself a lot and do well in my natural weight. The next final will be tough but I will follow what the coaches tell me to and apply some of my planning in the ring with regards to the situation. I will keep fighting for my country and try and win gold for India to the best of my abilities and give my 100 per cent,” mentioned Lovlina.
Contesting her second World Championships closing, Saweety (81kg) will go face to face towards the 2018 World champion Wang Lina of China within the closing on Saturday. The skilled pugilist from Haryana needed to accept the silver within the closing of the competitors in 2014 which was additionally towards a Chinese opponent and therefore, will look to go all out this time spherical to keep away from a repeat of that end result.
“The bout (yesterday) was tough and the opponent was good but I was confident in my scoring and I was confident that I will win. I have a golden chance of changing my silver medal into gold and I hope I can do that. I have worked day and night for this and I want to make my country proud,” mentioned Saweety.
With 4 medals, India ranked joint third alongside Colombia within the medals tally on the IBA Women’s World Championships 2023 with China (7) and Kazakhstan (6) rating first and second respectively.
Also striving for gold on this 12 months’s event finals would be the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallists Huang Hsiao-Wen of China and Irma Testa (57kg) of Italy. While Hsiao-Wen will face the reigning Bolivarian Games champion Yeni Arias of Colombia on Sunday, Testa will tackle final World Championships bronze medallist Karina Ibragimova of Kazakhstan within the finals on Saturday.
The 2019 World Champion and Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Beatriz Ferreira (60kg) of Brazil will face off towards Valdez Pana Angie Paola of Colombia within the closing on Sunday.The ongoing prestigious occasion has witnessed participation of 324 boxers, together with a number of Olympic medallists, from 65 international locations preventing for titles within the 12 weight classes. The event has a large prize pool of INR 20 crore. (ANI)