India’s ace boxer Alfiya Khan bagged a gold in the 81 plus weight category to continue the dominant show of the Indian women boxers at the Asian Boxing Championship in Amman, Jordan.
The judges disqualified her final rival, Jordan’s Islam Husaili, in the opening round ending India’s women’s boxing campaign with a total of seven medals. Lovlina Borgohain, who won the bronze medal at Tokyo 2020, defeated Ruzmetova Sokhiba of Uzbekistan 5-0 in the women’s 75 kg final to win her maiden Asian Championship gold medal.
Lovlina Borgohain had won bronze at the Asian Boxing Championships in 2017 and 2021. For Uzbek athlete Ruzmetova Sokhiba, it was her second consecutive silver medal.
Silver medalist Saweety Boora from the world championships, and bronze medalist Parveen from the 2022 Olympics, took home gold, while Minakshi had to settle for silver.
In the women’s 81kg, Saweety Boora, who took home silver in 2015 and bronze in 2016, defeated Gulsaya Yerzhan of Kazakhstan 5-0. In women’s 63 kg, Parveen, 22, defeated Kito Mai of Japan 5-0 to win her maiden Asian medal.
In the women’s 52kg division, Minakshi finished with a silver medal after falling to Japanese bronze medalist Kinoshita Rinka, who was competing in the event, 4-1.
In the men’s final on Saturday, Shiva Thapa, a London 2012 Olympian, will compete against up-and-coming prodigy Ruslan Abdullaev of Uzbekistan.
The 2013 Asian champion, Thapa, also won bronze in 2015 and 2019 and silver in 2017 and 2021. On Saturday, he’ll become the first boxer to ever win six medals at the Asian Championships.
Regardless of Shiva Thapa’s outcome, India has already ensured themselves of at least the third-best performance at the continental meet after seven gold medals in 2005 and five in 2003 with four gold medals. (ANI)
