Buoyed by home support, Nikhat, Lovlina, Nitu, Saweety to punch for gold at Worlds

New Delhi, March 24: Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Nitu Ghanghas and Saweety Boora will be buoyed by the home support as they fight hard to change the colour of their medals at the Women’s World Boxing Championships here this weekend.
The four Indian boxers are assured of at least a silver after they pulled off thrilling victories in their respective semifinal bouts on Thursday.
For Nikhat, it’s a chance to become only the second Indian to win the prestigious title more than once after the legendary MC Mary Kom, who has a record six titles to her name. And standing between her and the second world title is another fancied opponent — two-time Asian champion Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam.
The spotlight also returns on Lovlina, who has been able to put behind the underwhelming year. She would have breathed a sigh of relief as she finally broke the bronze medal jinx and qualified for her maiden World’s final. The Assam boxer has two bronze medals from the 2018 and 2019 editions.
The third boxer bidding to change the shade of her medal is Nitu. The 2022 Strandja Memorial and CWG gold medallist has been unstoppable this tournament, notching three RSC wins before edging out Kazakh Alua Balkibekova.
She has evolved as a boxer in the past year and is now able to adapt her game according to the opponent rather than just counter-attacking from a distance. She reaped the benefit of this in her semifinal.
She will be the first Indian in action as she faces Asian Championships bronze medallist Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg of Mongolia in the final on Saturday.
The seasoned Saweety came close to winning the gold almost a decade ago in 2014 but couldn’t cross the final line. She will be keen to add a world title to her kitty this time. (PTI)