Asian C’ships: Lovlina leads India’s gold rush

Olympic bronze medallist punches her way to form with a dominant victory

NEW DELHI: Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain set aside her indifferent form with a commanding win over Ruzmetova Sokhiba of Uzbekistan to win the Asian Boxing Championships title in Amman, Jordan, on Friday.

Competing in her first international event since moving to the heavier middleweight division (75 kg), the 25-year-old used her long reach to outpunch the 2021 Asian Championships silver medallist with a unanimous 5-0 verdict. Lovlina, whose Olympic bronze had come in 69kg, has moved up a class as the former is no longer an Olympic division. She competed at this year’s World Championships and Commonwealth Games in 70kg but failed to reach the medal rounds.

After an attritional first round that saw both pugilists sussing each other out, Lovlina came into her own in the next round, peppering her opponent with a flurry of punches. A straight right set the tone early, following which the lanky boxer landed two combinations to rattle the Uzbek. Under pressure, Sokhiba managed to land a left but Lovlina responded with a mean left of her own, followed by a powerful right jab in the opponent’s face, forcing the referee to give Sokhiba the count.

The final round was another one-sided affair with Lovlina again relying on one-two combination to peg Sokhiba back. The Uzbek swung wildly as the clock wound down, but the Indian, playing largely with an open guard, ducked and swayed her way out of trouble. A thundering right cross in the dying minutes put the result beyond doubt.

This was Lovlina’s third Asian medal, following a bronze in 69kg in 2017 and 2021.

Although she had only three bouts and despite this being only a five-boxer pool, Lovlina

World Championships (70 kg) Commonwealth Games (70 kg) Asian Championships (75 kg) appeared to be a much-improved pugilist. She pulled off a tough split decision (3-2) win over 2016 world champion Valentina Khalzova of Kazakhstan in Round 1. Then she overpowered an aggressive Suyeon Seong from South Korea with a unanimous decision to march into her first Asian final.

Besides Lovlina, four other Indian women were in the final. While Parveen Hooda (63kg), Saweety Boora (81kg) and Alfiya Pathan (+81kg) bagged the yellow metal, Minakshi (52kg) took silver after suffering a 1-4 defeat against the 2017 Youth World Championships bronze medallist Kinoshita Rinka of Japan.

Playing her maiden Asian

Lost in pre-quarters

Lost in quarter-final

Gold

Championships final, Parveen — 2022 World Championships bronze medallist — appeared unfazed against Japan’s Kito Mai and recorded a 5-0 win.

The Rohtak boxer had missed the cut for Commonwealth Games but showed no signs of nerves in her dominant win against the fourth seed. Both boxers went on the attack early, but the top-seeded Indian soon began to control the bout. She defended well in the second round before unleashing some powerful upper cuts in the final round to take gold.

2016 World Championships silver medallist Saweety (81kg) was up against Kazakh Gulsaya Yerzhan. The two-time Asian medallist (silver in 2015 and bronze in 2021) cruised to a 5-0 win.

Up against local favourite Islam Husaili, Alfiya (+81kg) handed India its fourth gold after her opponent was disqualified by the judges towards the end of the first round.

This was Indian women’s third-best performance at the event after seven gold medals in 2005 and five in 2003.

On Saturday, five-time Asian Championships medallist Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) — the most successful male pugilist in the competition’s history — will look to clinch his second gold when he takes on Abdullaev Ruslan of Uzbekistan.