Tokyo Olympic bronze-medallist Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) started her campaign on a winning note to seal a place in the quarterfinals of the Women’s World Boxing Championships. Along with Lovlina, Sakshi (52kg) also sealed her place in the last eight with a convincing 5-0 win in New Delhi on Monday. Lovlina got the better of Mexico’s Vanessa Ortiz, while Sakshi out-punched Kazakhstan’s Zhazira Urakbayeva.

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Competing in the new weight category of 75 kg at the Women’s World Boxing Championships, Lovlina got a bye in the first round. She took a step towards a medal by winning her first bout. The two-time bronze medalist at the World Championships looked a bit defensive against her formidable opponent. Lovlina was forced to play from a distance due to her greater length, which made it difficult for her to land accurate punches. The result was that Lovlina wasn’t able to connect a lot of the punches as she seemed nervous moving ahead. At last, the Indian danced around the ring, playing with aggression, and released a number of punches to emerge victorious.

On the other hand, the dynamic 23-year-old boxer from Haryana registered a 5-0 win in her last-16 clash against 2022 Asian Championships bronze medalist Zhazira Urakbayeva. Using her reach to land a flurry of punches with both hands, Sakshi looked in complete control from the outset and took the first round. After that, Sakshi continued to dominate her Kazakh opponent in the next two rounds. She combined her fast pace and clever attacking tactics to seal the victory comfortably via unanimous decision.

The Indian campaign at the Women’s World Boxing Championships, however, suffered a setback as Preeti lost a closely fought match. There was controversy over Preeti’s place in the Indian team for the Women’s World Boxing Championships. Because she had not won a single title in the national championship. The 19-year-old put up a strong show in the 54kg category. But she lost to last year’s silver medalist Jitpong Jutamas of Thailand in a thrilling contest.

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The Thai, who had won a medal in the 52kg category last season, got the better of Preeti 4-3. The match was so close that the review had to be resorted to for the final result. Preeti started aggressively to take a 4-1 lead in the first round of the tie. But she failed to maintain the momentum in the next two rounds.