World Boxing C'ships: Sakshi, Lovlina cruise into quarters

Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and the Asian Championships bronze medallist Sakshi Choudhary came up with stellar performances as they thrashed their rivals by identical 5-0 verdicts to move into the quarter finals of the 75 and 52kg categories respectively at the Rs 20 crore Mahindra IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex here on Monday.

- HARPAL SINGH BEDI

Another Indian pugilist Preeti lost her 52 kg bout narrowly and crashed out of the competition.

Lovlina made short work of Vanessa Ortiz of Mexico while Sakshi sent Asian Championships bronze medallist Zhazira Urakbayeva of Kazakhstan packing out of the championship. Preeti however was unlucky to have lost a close fight 3-4 to World Championships’ silver medallist Jitpong Jutamas of Thailand.

Lovelina dominated the ring and controlled the bout through out. She never let Vanessa gain any upper hand in the fight.The Assam boxer was superior both in tactics and attack. Her rival tried to counter with few desperate punches but that did not have much impact on the Indian.

The Indian looked assured while her rival was tentative.Lovlina made her run around the ring and then let flurry of punches that flattened the spirit of Vanessa who virtually threw in the towel.