Women’s World Championships: Lovlina Borgohain, Sakshi Chaudhary punch quarters ticket

New Delhi, March 20

Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain made a winning start to her campaign in the Women’s World Championships with a dominant victory here today.

Lovlina (75kg) and Sakshi Chaudhary (54kg) moved to the quarterfinals after notching up 5-0 victories. While Lovlina outpunched Mexico’s Vanessa Ortiz, Sakshi got the better of Zhazira Urakbayeva of Kazakhstan.

The most electrifying Indian performance of the day, however, was that of Preeti (54kg). The youngster though lost to last year’s 52kg silver medallist Jitpong Jutamas of Thailand by a 3-4 verdict, the bout was so close that a review had to be taken.

Preeti entered the tournament on the back of a selection row as her place in the contingent was questioned because she didn’t win the National Championships. However, the 19-year-old justified her place in the Indian team with her fearless performance. The tenacious Preeti showed aggression against a more experienced opponent to take the first round 4-1.

She fought toe to toe with Jutamas as both pugilists connected punches. The Thai, though, was able to edge the Indian, taking the remaining two rounds with the final result being decided by a bout review.

“I learned a lot from this bout. 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 75kg category, Lovlina, who received a first-round bye, took one step closer to a medal. The two-time World Championships bronze medallist looked a little defensive against her opponent.

The Indian, who was considerably taller than her Mexican opponent, was forced to play from a distance as Ortiz capitalised on every opportunity to move forward and attack.

The result was that Lovlina wasn’t able to connect a lot of the punches as she seemed nervous moving ahead.

“It was my first bout, the boxer was shorter than me,” Lovlina said. “I was not able to follow my strategy to a tee. I am not very happy with this performance, I could have done better. She was coming ahead so I was forced to move back,” she added.

“It is my first World Championships in this weight category. It will be difficult as the other boxers are already competing in this weight class. We will have to see how to play with which opponent. I think I can do better,” she added.

Sakshi, the 2021 Asian Championships bronze medallist, utilised her height and long reach to her advantage. She landed her punches before stepping back quickly, not letting her opponent counterattack.

The Indian danced around the ring, playing with aggression and releasing a number of 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.