Hot favourites Nikhat, Lovlina, Nitu, and Saweety eye gold at World Championships

World Boxing Championships (Pic Courtesy: SAI_Media)

Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Nitu Ghanghas, and Saweety Boora will be buoyed by the home support as they fight hard to punch for gold at the Women's World Boxing Championships on Sunday. All four Indian boxers are assured of at least a silver after they pulled off commanding victories in their respective semi-final bouts on Thursday.

Nikhat has an opportunity 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. She has lived up to her expectations in the light flyweight category after moving down to 50kg from 52kg as the latter was scrapped from the Paris Olympics.

The 26-year-old arguably had the most difficult path to the final among all Indian pugilists, having dismantled the strongest opponents across five bouts in the highly-contested Olympic category. And standing between her and the second world title is another fancied opponent, who is the two-time Asian champion, Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam.

Also Read: Lovlina, Nikhat, Nitu and Saweety storm into World Championship semis

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.

Lovlina, who is also competing in a new weight class, moving up from 69kg to the middleweight 75kg, has gotten better with each bout. She doesn't always have the height advantage which she enjoyed in 69kg, but has been able to use her speed to her benefit. She will take on Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Australia's Caitlin Parker in the final on Sunday.

The third boxer bidding to change the colour of her medal is Nitu. The 2022 Strandja Memorial and CWG gold medallist has been on fire this tournament, notching three RSC wins before edging out Kazakh Alua Balkibekova. 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. Keen on adding a world title to her kitty this time, the Haryana boxer has had the easiest path to the final, fighting just two bouts. An uphill battle awaits her in the summit clash when she takes on the 2018 champion and 2019 bronze medallist Wang Lina of China.

The quartet has a chance to match India's best-ever performance in terms of gold medals. Home boxers Mary Kom, Sarita Devi, Jenny RL and Lekha KC had clinched the gold in 2006. The edition remains India's best-ever showing, when the country snared eight medals, including four gold, one silver and three bronze.

(With PTI inputs)