Saweety Boora beats China's Wang Lina to help India bag second gold at World Boxing Championship

Saweety Boora secured a gold medal in the 75-81 kg finals against China's Wang Lina at the IBA World Women's Boxing Championship in New Delhi on Saturday. The light heavyweight boxer produced a superb show against her Chinese opponent and was declared winner by points (4-3) as India won both the finals scheduled for the day.

Saweety started the opening round on a cautious note. She maintained the stance until the first minute before launching a barrage of punches on her opponent. She maintained the approach throughout the round and won it 3-2.

The Indian started Round 2 on a similar note, waited for an opening before trying to strike Wang Lina. In the process, the Indian also received a straight jab but the results remained in Saweety's favour, who won the second round with similar scoreline.

Wang Lina showed some retaliation in the final round, but the Indian maintained her ante and saved her energy for the last minute throttle. The strategy saw a shift in momentum with the officials declaring the bout in India's favour.

Saweety had settled for a silver nine years ago, when she defeated some big names to reach the finals of World Championship. The 30-year-old this time left no stone unturned against the 2018 World Champion Wang Lina.

Earlier, Nitu Ghanghas secured an unanimous decision win against Mongolia's Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg to clinch a gold in the 45-48 kg category finals.

Nitu, who is also a Commonwealth Games gold medalist, was enjoying a supreme run in the tournament and had secured three Referee Stops Contest (RSC) wins. She faced a tough competition in the semifinals against familar nemesis Kazakhstan's Alua Balkibekova, whom she defeated 5-2 after a split decision verdict. Balkibekova had eliminated Nitu in the quarterfinals of the World Championship last year.

With this victory, Saweety became the seventh Indian boxer to be crowned world champion.

Six-time champion Mary Kom (2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2018), Sarita Devi (2006), Jenny RL (2006), Lekha KC (2006), Nikhat Zareen (2022), Nitu (2023) are the other pugilists who have won the world title.

On the final day of the World Boxing Championships' Nikhat and Lovlina will be seen in action in the finals.

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