Guwahati: Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain lived up to the expectations and came up with a dominant display to storm into the quarterfinals of the 6th women’s national boxing championships in Bhopal on Friday.
Up against an unheralded Puja Nayak of Odisha in the last-16 bout, the Assam pugilist’s relentless attack and powerful punches proved too strong for her opponent as the reigning Asian champion was declared the winner by Referee Stops the Contest (RSC) verdict after just a few minutes into the first round of the bout.
Meanwhile, the 2016 world championships silver medallist Sonia Lather of Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) also made her way into the 57kg quarterfinals after she received a walkover against Karnataka’s Divyani.
Tamil Nadu’s S Kalaivani was the other pugilist to secure the Last-8 berth as she outperformed Swati Arya of Rajasthan by a 5-0 margin in a 48kg pre-quarterfinal contest.
Rajasthan’s Arshi Khanam and Jhalak Tomar also produced dominating performances to make progress into the quarterfinals with identical 5-0 wins in their respective bouts. While Khanam beat Uttar Pradesh’s Ice Prajapati in the 54kg bout, Tomar (50kg) thrashed Assam’s Kampi Boro comfortably.
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For Haryana, Kalpana emerged victorious in the 50kg category by 5-0 against Maharashtra’s Janhavi Waghmare. Rajni Singh (48kg) and Rinky Kishore (50kg) were the boxers from Uttar Pradesh to progress into the quarterfinals. Rajni beat Punjab’s Suvidha Bhagat 5-0 without breaking a sweat whereas Kishore claimed an RSC win against Kavitha Paravada of Andhra Pradesh.
The quarter-finals will be played on Saturday.
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