Women’s Boxing World Championships: Lovlina Borgohain Sails Into the Quarterfinal in Style

• Image Credit: Google

• Mar 20, 2023 | Dhupali Das

Competing in her new 75-kg category, Lovlina, who received a first-round bye, won her opening encounter to move one step closer to a medal...

Digital Desk: Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain made a winning start to her campaign as she and Sakshi Chaudhary moved to the quarterfinals of the Women's World Championships with dominant victories in New Delhi on Monday. Both Sakshi (54 kg) and Lovlina (75 kg) recorded 5-0 unanimous decision wins. Lovlina defeated Vanessa Ortiz of Mexico, and Sakshi defeated Zhazira Urakbayeva of Kazakhstan to advance to the last eight stages.

However, Preeti (54kg) performed the most electrifying Indian performance of the day. The youngster, though, lost her bout to last year's 52-kg silver medalist, Thailand's Jitpong Jutamas, by a 4-3 decision; the bout was so close that a review had to be taken.

Preeti entered the tournament on the back of a selection row, where her position in the team was called into question because she did not win the National Championships.

However, the 19-year-old justified her spot on the Indian team with her fearless performance.

Preeti, who was persistent and aggressive, won the first round 4-1 against a more skilled opponent.

She fought toe-to-toe with Jutamas as both pugilists connected punches, but the Thai was able to edge the Indian and take the remaining two rounds, with the final outcome determined by a bout review.

"I learned a lot from this bout, the competitor was also good. I need to work harder. I was aggressive in the first round and I should have continued that and I should have dominated the bout," Preeti said.

Competing in her new 75-kg category, Lovlina, who received a first-round bye, won her opening encounter to move one step closer to a medal.

The two-time World Championship bronze medalist appeared to be on the attack against her stocky opponent.

The Indian, who was significantly taller than her Mexican opponent, was forced to play from a distance as Ortiz took advantage of every chance to move forward and attack.

As a consequence, Lovlina was unable to connect on many of her punches as she seemed nervously moving forward.

"It was my first bout, the boxer was shorter than me. I was not able to follow by strategy to the T. I am not very happy with this performance, I could have done better. She was coming ahead so I was forced to move back," Lovlina said after her bout.

"This is my first World Championship in this weight category. It will be challenging because the other boxers are already competing in this weight class. We must determine how to handle each opponent. I believe I can perform better."  Sakshi, the bronze medalist at the 2021 Asian Championship, took advantage of her height and extended reach. She would punch Urakbayeva and take a quick stride back, not allowing her opponent to counter-attack.

The Indian danced around the arena, acting aggressively, and landed several punches to emerge victorious. 

"I played much better than I expected. She is a good boxer so I thought it would be a 19-20 fight but the strategy worked for me and I was able to dominate," Sakshi said after the bout.