Favourable draw boosts India’s hopes at World Boxing Championships

The Indian contingent for the World Boxing Championships that gets underway at Liverpool on Thursday, has been handed a decent draw with medal contenders Lovlina Borgohain (women’s 75kg), Nikhat Zareen (women’s 51kg), Hitesh Gulia (men’s 70kg) and Abhinash Jamwal (men’s 65kg), avoiding tricky opponents early in the competition.

While top seed Lovlina, Gulia, seeded third and No.6 seed Jamwal have received byes in the opening round, Nikhat will take on Jennifer Lozana of the USA.

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The 20-member Indian contingent is focused on putting together a strong performance at the inaugural World Championships being held under the aegis of the World Boxing – a recently formed international governing body for boxing, and their chances have definitely been boosted by the return of Nikhat, former world champion and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina.

Both Nikhat and Lovlina have been out of international action this year but were impressive in the domestic circuit and dominated the trials.

Indian boxers have impressed in the two World Boxing Cup competitions held in Brazil and Kazakhstan, winning a total of 17 medals, including four golds.

The World Boxing Championships will be the first time that both men’s and women’s competitions will be held together and over 544 boxers from 68 national federations will be competing in 20 weight categories.

Besides Lovlina (1st seed), Hitesh (3rd seed) and Abhinash (sixth seed), five other Indian boxers — Minakshi Hooda (women’s 48kg), Pooja Rani (women’s 80kg), Nupur Sheoran (women’s 80+ kg), Sachin Siwach Jr (60kg) and Jugnoo Ahlawat (85kg) — have received seedings. Among the women, Nupur is the No.1 seed in her category while Minakshi is seeded third and Pooja is seeded second. In the men’s categories, Sachin has been seeded 8th while Jugnoo is the second seed.

Among the other medal contenders in the fray for India, Sakshi (women’s 54kg) will open her campaign against Viktoriia Shkeul of Ukraine, while Jaismine Lamboria (women’s 57kg) will have a tough second-round battle against Brazil’s upcoming star boxer Jucielen Cerqueira Romeu once she gets past Daria-Olha Hutarina of Ukraine in the opening round.

Jaismine had got the better of Romeu in the final of the World Boxing Cup in Astana and should be confident of repeating that performance in Liverpool.

Hitesh and Abhinash have been placed in different halves of the draw from their closest challengers, Kainan Oliveira and Yuri Falcao (both from Brazil), respectively and should be favourites to reach the summit clash of their respective weight categories.

Four Indian boxers will feature on the opening day of the competition. Pawan Bartwal (men’s 55kg) will launch India’s campaign against Brazil’s Michael Douglas Trindade, while Sakshi (women’s 54kg), seasoned campaigner Sanamacha Chanu (women’s 70kg), and Harsh Choudhary (men’s 90kg) are scheduled to compete in the evening session.

First round clashes of Indian players

Women’s

48kg – Meenakshi Hooda (3rd seed) vs bye

51kg – Nikhat Zareen vs Jennifer Lozana (USA)

54kg – Sakshi vs Viktoriia Shkeul (UKR)

57kg – Jaismine Lamboria vs Daria-Olha Hutarina (UKR)

60kg – Sanju Khatri vs Aneta Rygielska (POL)

65kg – Neeraj Phogat vs Krista Kovalainen (FIN)

70kg – Sanamacha Chanu vs Ditte Frostholm (DEN)

75kg – Lovlina Borgohain (1st seed) vs bye

80kg – Pooja Rani (2nd seed) vs bye

80+kg – Nupur Sheoran (1st seed) vs bye

Men’s

50kg – Jadumani Singh Mandengbam vs bye

55kg – Pawan Bartwal vs Michael Douglas Da Silva Trindade

60kg – Sachin Siwach Jr (8th seed) vs bye

65kg – Abhinash Jamwal (6th seed) vs bye

70kg – Hitesh Gulia (3rd seed) vs bye

75kg – Sumit Kundu vs Mohammad Alhussien (JOR)

80kg – Lakshya Chahar vs bye

85kg – Jugnoo Ahlawat (2nd seed) vs bye

90kg – Harsh Chaudhary vs Adam Tutak (POL)

90+kg – Narender Berwal vs Martin McDonagh (IRL)