Lovlina Borgohain gets direct entry in Indian squad for women’s boxing world championships

Olympic bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain will get a direct entry into the Indian squad for the women’s boxing world championships. It is scheduled for December this year. The gold medalist at the senior nationals in October will be a backup if Lovlina Borgohain decides to skip the big-ticket competition.

Boxing Federation of India (BFI) secretary-general Hemanta Kalita told Sportskeeda:

“The slot is booked for Lovlina Borgohain for now. She deserves it after her Tokyo Olympics medalist winning performance. The gold medalist in her weight class will be a back-up in case she decides not to participate”.

The National Women’s Boxing Championships will be held in Hisar, Haryana from October 21 to 27. The performances of the pugilists will be taken into account while selecting the squad for the world championships.

Except for Lovlina Borgohain, any wrestler, including the likes of Olympians Mary Kom, Simranjit Kaur and Pooja Rani, will have to win at the nationals to make it to the worlds team.

“There are no exceptions for anyone except Lovlina. If we decide to change the rules, we will only do it after an emergency executive meeting,” Kalita said.

Lovlina Borgohain is currently training in Bengaluru.

Boxing Senior Nationals return after one-year hiatus

The competition will mark the return of women’s national championships after a gap of over a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The performances will be considered when the selection committee will meet to finalize the squad for the upcoming AIBA World Championships which is scheduled later this year," the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) stated.

The tournament will be played as per the AIBA's revised 12 weight divisions -- 48kg, 50kg, 52kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63kg, 66kg, 70kg, 75kg, 81kg and +81kg.

Meanwhile, the Boxing World Championships had originally been scheduled for Kielce in Poland, along with the AIBA Youth Men’s Championships, in April.

However, while the men’s event took place as planned, the women’s was deferred due to the COVID-19 crisis.

"We will definitely hold it this year. It will be at the end of November and beginning of December. We will announce very soon in which city we will stage it. We have had problems with the event because of the pandemic,” AIBA President Umar Kremlev said.

This will be the 12th edition of the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships since it was first held in Scranton in the United States in 2001.