Women's World Championships: Lovlina Borgohain and Sakshi Advance to Quarterfinals

The Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and the 2021 Asian Championships bronze medallist Sakshi Choudhary put up stellar performances and registered impressive victories to advance to the quarter-finals of the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi on Monday.

Lovlina (75kg) dominated Vanessa Ortiz of Mexico before registering a statement 5-0 victory as Sakshi (52kg) notched a 5-0 unanimous decision win against Zhazira Urakbayeva of Kazakhstan.

The Assam-born pugilist, who has two World Championships bronze medals under her belt, started the bout flawlessly, landing strong uppercuts and hooks to take control of the bout.

The 25-year-old carried her brilliant momentum into the next round with persistent attacks and smart footwork to which her Mexican opponent had no answer. Ultimately, Lovlina emerged victorious in the thoroughly one-sided contest to kickstart her campaign with an effortless victory.

“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 since before but I believe that I can do well,” Lovlina said after the match.

She will be up against the top-seed and the last World Championships’ bronze medallist Rady Gramane of Mozambique in the next round.

The dynamic 23-year-old pugilist from Haryana hardly put a foot wrong in her commanding 5-0 win against the 2022 Asian Championships bronze medallist Zhazira Urakbayeva of Kazakhstan in the Last-16 contest. Utilising her reach to land relentless punches with both hands, Sakshi looked to be in complete control from the word go and prevailed in the first round. The two-time World Youth champion continued to dominate her Kazakh opponent in the next two rounds with her quick movement and smart attacking strategy to seal the victory comfortably by unanimous decision.

Sakshi, the 2021 Asian Championship bronze medallist, utilised her height and long reach to her advantage. She would punch Urakbayeva and step back quickly, not letting her opponent counter attack.

“The boxer from Kazakistan (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. As it was my first time playing with her, me and my coach made our strategy by watching and analyzing the 7-8 videos of her previous tournaments. 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 said after the match.

The Indian will now square off against Wu Yu of China in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, Preeti (54kg) went down fighting 3-4 in a closely-contested encounter against last World Championships’ silver medallist Jitpong Jutamas of Thailand after the bout was reviewed. The 19-year-old Indian put up a strong fight but, despite her best efforts, could not replicate the result from her last bout where she had toppled the top-seed Perijoc Lacramiora of Romania.

Six Indians, including 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 in the pre-quarterfinals on Tuesday.

(With inputs from Agencies)