Lovlina, Parveen, Saweety and Alifiya win Asian C’ships titles

NEW DELHI: Lovlina Borgohain looked at ease as she struck gold in her maiden appearance in the middleweight division while three other Indian boxers were also crowned Asian champions in Amman, Jordan on Friday.

World championship bronze medallist Parveen Hooda (63kg), Saweety (81kg) and Alfiya Khan (81+kg) packed a power punch to clinch the yellow metal in their respective categories.

Minakshi, on the other hand, concluded her maiden Asian Championships campaign by clinching a silver medal in the flyweight division (52kg) as Indian women boxers signed off with a haul of seven medals.

Parveen continued to impress as she notched up a facile 5-0 victory over Japan’s Kito Mai to grab the first gold for India in the ongoing event, while Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina, competing in her maiden tournament in the 75kg category, also cruised to a unanimous decision win over Ruzmetova Sokhiba of Uzbekistan.

Saweety and Alifiya then added to the gold rush, defeating Gulsaya Yerzhan of Kazakhstan and Islam Husaili of Jordan respectively.

While Saweety pummelled Yerzhan into submission, Alifiya’s opponent was disqualified bringing an end to the bout in the first round itself.

The title will be a big morale booster for the 25-year-old Lovlina who has struggled to find form since her bronze-medal winning exploits at the Tokyo Olympics. She made early exits in the World Championships and Commonwealth Games earlier this year.

The Assam boxer has moved up from 69kg to 75kg division as her former weight class doesn’t feature in the Paris Olympics.