Indian Women Win 7 Medals Including 4 Gold At Asian Boxing Championship

Indian boxers Parveen Hooda, Lovlina Borgohain, Saweety Boora & Alfiya Khan won Gold Medals while Minakshi settled for silver on the final day of Asian Boxing Championship.

Asian Boxing Championship 2022: In her first outing in the middleweight division, Lovlina Borgohain looked at ease as she won the gold medal, while three other Indian boxers were also named Asian champions on Friday in Amman, Jordan. 

Parveen Hooda (63 kg), Saweety (81 kg), and Alfiya Khan (81+ kg), all bronze medalists at the world championships, delivered a powerful punch to win the gold medal in their respective weight classes. 

In contrast, Minakshi finished her first Asian Championships campaign by winning a silver medal in the flyweight (52 kg) event, giving Indian women boxers a total of seven medals.

For India’s first gold medal in the present competition, Parveen defeated Japan’s Kito Mai easily 5-0. Olympic bronze medalist Lovlina, who was competing in her first competition in the 75kg division, also easily defeated Uzbekistan’s Ruzmetova Sokhiba by unanimous decision.

After beating Gulsaya Yerzhan of Kazakhstan and Islam Husaili of Jordan, respectively, Saweety and Alifiya added to the gold rush. 

Alifiya’s opponent was disqualified, putting a stop to the fight in the first round as Saweety beat Yerzhan into submission.

The victory will be a huge confidence boost for the 25-year-old Lovlina, who has had trouble regaining her form after her Olympic bronze medal-winning exploits in Tokyo. 

She left the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships early this year. Due to the absence of her prior weight class from the Paris Olympics, the Assam fighter has risen from the 69kg to the 75kg bracket.

The fight began tentatively as the two fighters encouraged one other to strike first, but Lovlina managed to use her wide reach and score a couple crisp jabs. 

Despite their attempts to dodge one another’s attacks by dancing around the ring, Lovlina was successful in landing her blows. 

She delivered a punch so forcefully that the referee had no choice but to award Sokhiba the victory.

Lovlina has significantly improved over the course of the three matches she competed in the event, despite the fact that there are only five boxers in the field. 

It is Lovlina’s third medal at the Asian Championships; she previously won bronze in the welterweight division in 2017 and 2021.

Parveen, who didn’t compete in the Commonwealth Games but won bronze at the global championships, earlier put up a powerful performance to defeat Mai, the fourth seed, by unanimous decision.

Both boxers launched offensive attacks early on, but Parveen, the top seed, was able to control the fight by jabbing her opponent mercilessly. 

After losing the first round, Mai attempted to boost the ante, but Parveen deftly sidestepped all of her attempts. The Indian’s higher cuts in the 3rd round were particularly stunning.

In the initial Indian final of the day, Kinoshita Rinka of Japan defeated Minakshi by a score of 1-4 to win the gold medal. 

The second seed Japanese player took full advantage of Minakshi’s slowness as 4 out of the 5 judges voted in her favor. Minakshi was slow to get going.

Minakshi continued to appear lost in the second round. The Japanese pugilist played more precisely and held her ground well, but she was unable to land clear punches and was forced to clinch. 

It was actually the second round that lost Minakshi the tie because, after an incredible comeback in the closing three minutes that saw her win the round 4-1 with a series of punches, the judges decided in Rinka’s favor.