Asian Boxing Championships: Lovlina, Shiva to lead India’s gold medal charge

The semi-final bouts for the women’s category will begin on Wednesday and will be followed by the men’s last-four contests on Thursday.

FILE PHOTO: Lovlina Borgohain of Assam won the gold medal in the middleweight category of women’s boxing at the 36th National Games at Gandhinagar in Gujarat on October 12, 2022. | Photo Credit: V. V. Krishnan

Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and Shiva Thapa will spearhead the Indian challenge as 12 pugilists from the country aim to seal their berth in the the Asian Boxing Championships finals in Amman, Jordan here from Wednesday.

The semi-final bouts for the women’s category will begin on Wednesday and will be followed by the men’s last-four contests on Thursday.

The Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina (75kg), who is contesting in this weight category at an international tournament for the first time, will take on Seong Suyeon of the Korea in her semi-final bout.

Alongside Lovlina, the 2022 world championships bronze medallist Parveen (63kg) will be up against Uranbileg Shinetsetseg of Mongolia while competition debutant Preeti (57kg) will be involved in a tough match-up against the Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Irie Sena of Japan.

The other four women in semi-final action will be Alfiya Pathan (81+kg), Saweety (81kg), Ankushita Boro (75kg), and Minakshi (52kg).

In the men’s category, Shiva Thapa (63.5kg) who became the most decorated Asian champion after ensuring his sixth medal in the competition will face two-time Asian Championships medallist Bakhodur Usmonov of Tajikistan.

Two-time Commonwealth bronze medallist Mohammad Hussamuddin (57kg) will go head to head against the 2021 world championships silver medallist Serik Temirzhanov of Kazakhstan.

The other three men in semi-final action will be Narender (92+kg), Sumit (75kg), and Govind Kumar Sahani (48kg).

Narender (92+kg) dominated his way to the semis by comfortably defeating Iman Ramezanpourdelavar of Iran with a unanimous 5:0 verdict late on Monday night.

India’s total medal count of 12 in this year’s edition of the tournament is the third highest among all competing nations.

The women pugilists of the country have secured seven medals which ranks them second in the standings among all nations while the men’s total tally of five medals places them joint third alongside Jordan and Mongolia in their respective rankings.

The final of the tournament for the women’s category will take place on Friday and the men’s final bouts will be conducted on Saturday.