India’s boxers shine in IBA Women’s Boxing Championship, including Nikhat Zareen, four make it to the finals, Gold Medal may come

India is assured of four medals in the World Boxing Championship. The Indian boxing quartet of Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Lovlina Borgohain (75kg), Neetu Gaghans (48kg) and Sweety Boora (81kg) produced strong performances to win their bouts on Thursday. All the four players entered the final of the World Boxing Championship through the best game in their category.

Now the next match of the championship will be held on Saturday and then on Sunday. Neetu Gaghans (48kg) and Sweety Boora (81kg) will be in the fray in Saturday’s bout. Nikhat Zareen (50kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) will clash on Sunday. Let us tell you that all the four players have worked extremely hard to reach the finals.

While Nikhat defeated Rio Olympics bronze medalist Ingrid Valencia of Colombia 5-0, Neetu got the better of Alua Balkibekova of Kazakhstan 5-2. Two-time bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain has been successful for the first time. To make it to the final, Lovlina beat China’s Li Qian 4-1, after which she made it to the final of the World Championship for the first time. Apart from Lovlina, Sweety Boora (81kg) posted a 4-3 win over Australia’s Sue Emman Greentree.

Matches to be held on Saturday and Sunday
Let us inform that on Sunday, Lovlina’s final match will be against Caitlin Park of Australia. Whereas, Sweety Boora (81kg) will take on Wang Lina of China. Nikhat (the defending champion in the 52kg category) is competing in the 50kg weight category. Nikhat will now face two-time Asian champion Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam for the gold medal.

Nikhat showed his strength
Nikhat Zareen showed quickness and tactical acumen to beat Valencia and continue to make strides towards defending their title. Nikhat entered the ring with full preparation against Valencia, who defeated India’s great boxer MC Mary Kom in the Tokyo Olympics. Nikhat attacked in the first two rounds and then defended. The unanimous decision win showed Nikhat’s skill and physical fitness as the boxer from Telangana had to fight five bouts to reach the final.

After this victory, Nikhat said, “Today’s match was the best. I feel I do better when I fight technically sound boxers. I have played against him before and he is a very experienced boxer. Earlier, the match between Neetu and Balkibekova was similar to last year’s quarterfinal. In this, Commonwealth Games champion Neetu and Balkibekova punched each other fiercely in the first round. However, the boxer from Kazakhstan was more dominant and won the first round 3-2. In the second round, however, Neetu came back strong and landed powerful ‘hooks’ and ‘jabs’. Both the boxers kept trying to pin each other down but Neetu was able to seal the round.

The next three minutes were tense in which Neetu got the better of silver medalist Balkibekova from the previous round, prompting a ‘review’ of the match and declaring her the winner. Neetu had lost to this boxer in their previous encounter in Istanbul. “I played away last time so I could not recover. This time I played very close.

He said, “I have improved a lot now which is visible. Earlier I used to attack from distance but now I can play according to the conditions. Neetu will next face Asian Championship bronze medalist Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg of Mongolia on Saturday.