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India’s 2020 Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain and talented pugilist Alfiya Pathan were impressive in their semifinal bouts on Wednesday at the ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships in Amman, Jordan. With their respective wins, Lovlina and Alfiya are in contention for gold.
Competing in the women’s 75kg, Lovlina scored a 5-0 unanimous decision victory against Seong Suyeon of South Korea to set up a title clash with the 2021 Asian Championships silver medalist Ruzmetova Sokhiba.
Alfiya also scored a commanding 5-0 win, against 2016 World Champion Lazzat Kungeibayeva of Kazakhstan. She will face Jordan's Islam Husaili in the gold medal match.
However, it wasn’t a good day for Ankushita Boro as she lost her women’s 66kg semifinal bout to Khamidova Navbokhor of Uzbekistan 1-4 to settle for a bronze medal.
Women’s World Boxing Championships
India has been allotted the hosting rights for the 2023 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship, the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) announced on Wednesday.
Ajay Singh, president of the BFI, and Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association (IBA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday. Reigning world champion Nikhat Zareen was also present on the occasion.
The global event carries a total prize money of approximately ₹19.50 crore ($2.4 million) and the gold medallists will be awarded ₹81 lakh ($100,000).
The 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships will be the second to be held in India within a span of six years. Since the inception of the World Championships in 2001, the prestigious biennial event has been held in India in 2006 and 2018. India also hosted the Women’s Youth World Championships in 2017.
India now has a rich legacy of women's boxing with superstars like HC Mary Kom and Nikhat Zareen being household names now. Lovlina Borgohain's bronze medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics meant that even after the retirement of Mary Kom, women's boxing continues to gain decent attention.
Pugilists like Nikhat and Lovlina seem set to take forward India's story of success in this sport. Hopefully, they will have success in the 2023 Women's World Boxing Championships as well.
