Indian boxer Pooja Rani gets better of Uzbekistan pugilist to win Asian Boxing Championship

Defending Champion Pooja Rani has once again proved her mettle with the gold medal at the Asian Boxing Championship defeating the Uzbekistan pugilist Mavluda Movlonova. She made this gold medal winning effort in Dubai in the category of 75kg. 

With the win on Sunday, the boxer has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled for this year. She won by unanimous decision of 5-0, which made the decision to announce her as the winner asn easy one. This is a huge moment for not only the boxer but also the country as this is the first gold medal for India in this particular edition of the tournament. 

The 30-year-old boxer was given a walkover in the semi-finals and since then, she had no reason to turn back. In 2019 too, the boxer had impressed all with her spirited win in the 81kg category but could not repeat the same performance last year as the competition was postponed due to the pandemic. 

If we were to dig into the history of Rani’s performances in this event, she has had an impressive medal tally. She had bagged a bronze medal in 2015 and before that she had also won a silver in 2012 in the middle weight category of the same event.

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The gold medal was a huge boost for the Indian contingent especially after world champion MC Mary Kom lost her bout in the 51kg category and had to settle for silver. Other than Mary Kom, Lalbuatsaihi also settled for silver medal at the Asian Championship. She lost a tricky bout in the 64kg category against Kazakhstan’s Milana Safronova. 

This year, the Indian contingent saw their best show by securing an unprecedented 15 medals. In the last edition, the team had won 13 medals, which itself was a record. This year, eight Indian boxers were able to secure bronze medals including Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), who went in with a lot of hopes in the event. 

The tournament was scheduled to be held in Delhi but due to the increasing number of covid-19 cases last year, the event was shifted to Dubai, UAE.