Nikhat Zareen off to winning start at World Boxing Championships

Nikhat Zareen began her World Boxing Championships campaign with a dominant 5-0 win in Liverpool, while Lovlina Borgohain and Hitesh Gulia suffered early defeats in India’s mixed start

Hyderabad: India’s star boxer Nikhat Zareen announced her return to the international stage with a clinical win in the opening round of the women’s 51kg weight category at the World Boxing Championships in Liverpool on Saturday.

The 29-year-old, a two-time world champion who had not competed in any international event this year, showed no signs of rustiness as she dominated USA’s Jennifer Lozano from the first minute to secure a 5-0 verdict.

---

However, it was not a very good outing for the other two Indians in action on Saturday.

Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain went down 0-5 against Busra Isildar of Turkey in the second round of the women’s 75kg category, while Hitesh Gulia’s spirited fight was not enough to avoid a 1-4 loss against Finn Robert Bos of the Netherlands in the men’s 70kg bout.

India has fielded a 20-member contingent at the inaugural World Championships, being held under the aegis of World Boxing — a recently formed international governing body for the sport — and made a strong start to their campaign.

In the Friday night session, World Boxing Cup Astana gold medallist Jaismine Lamboria defeated Daria-Olha Hutarina of Ukraine 5-0 in the women’s 57kg bout, while Narender Berwal opened his men’s 90+kg campaign with a 4-1 win over Martin McDonagh of Ireland.

Two more boxers were scheduled to be in action in the evening session on Saturday, with Sachin (men’s 60kg) taking on Jacob Cassar of Australia and Sanju (women’s 60kg) facing Aneta Rygielska of Poland.