Asian Championships: Gold rush in Jordan as India's Lovlina Borgohain, Parveen Hooda, Saweety and Alfiya Khan finish atop podium

New Delhi, November 11

Lovlina Borgohain looked at ease as she struck gold in her maiden appearance in the 75kg division as three other Indian boxers also won gold at the Asian Championships in Amman, Jordan, today.

World Championships bronze medallist Parveen Hooda (63kg), Saweety (81kg) and Alfiya Khan (+81kg) packed a punch to finish on the top of the podium in their respective categories. Minakshi, on the other hand, concluded her maiden Asian Championships campaign by clinching a silver medal in the 52kg division as the Indian women signed off with a haul of seven medals.

Borgohain cruised to a 5-0 unanimous decision win over Uzbekistan’s Ruzmetova Sokhiba, while Hooda notched up a facile victory by the same margin over Japan’s Kito Mai. Saweety and Khan then added to the gold rush, defeating Gulsaya Yerzhan of Kazakhstan and Islam

Husaili of Jordan, respectively. While Saweety pummelled Yerzhan into submission, Khan’s opponent was disqualified in the first round.

Minakshi lost the gold medal bout to Japan’s Kinoshita Rinka via a

1-4 spilt verdict.

Booster shot for Lovlina

This is Borgohain’s third Asian Championships medal after bronze in 2017 and 2021. The Assamese has moved up from the 69kg to 75kg division as her former weight class doesn’t feature in the Paris Olympics.

The win is a big boost for the 25-year-old Borgohain, who has struggled to find form since her bronze-winning exploits in Tokyo. She made early exits at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games earlier this year.

Borgohain and Sokhiba started the proceedings on a cautious note, avoiding each other’s attacks. But Borgohain made good use of her height to land a few clean jabs. One of them was so powerful that the referee was forced to give Sokhiba the count.

Earlier, Hooda, who missed out on the Commonwealth Games, put up a dominant show to beat fourth-seeded Mai via a unanimous decision. Their bout began on an attacking note but Hooda dominated the proceedings as she jabbed her opponent at will. Having lost the opening round, Mai tried to up the ante but Hooda swiftly dodged all her attacks. The Indian was impressive with her upper cuts in the third round.