Lovlina rushes to the final

Shiva grabs bronze at Ulaanbaatar Cup

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 23: Two Assam boxers Shiva Thapa and Lovlina Borgohain made contrasting performance in Ulaanbaatar Cup in Mongolia on Saturday.

Shiva lost a closely-contested bout to home boxer Battumur Misheelt. The boxer from Assam and the former world bronze-winner connected better but could not find get the nod from the judges, who were split in their verdict favouring the crowd favourite.

However Lovlina, in contrast, dominated from the very start, taking good advantage of her opponent Enkhbaatar Erdenetuya’s sluggish foot movement. The Indian punched at will, her jabs connecting powerfully. The Assam-boxer will now square off against Chinese Taipei’s Nien Chen Chen in her summit clash.

Among others who made the final along with Lovlina are Sonia Lather, Mandeep Jangra, Himanshu Sharma (49kg) and Muhammed Etash Khan (56kg).

Besides Shiva, Bina Devi Koijam (48kg) also had to satisfy herself with the bronze after losing her semi-final bout in a unanimous verdict to South Korean Kim Kum Sun.

But world silver medallist Sonia kept India’s hopes alive after registering a thumping come-from-behind win over Tiantian Zhao of China in a split decision.

After faring poorly in the first round, Sonia made a stunning comeback in the second and third rounds to outpunch the Chinese pugilist and set her date with local favourite Tumurkhuyag Bolortuul in the summit clash.

In the men’s 69kg semi-final, former CWG silver medallist Mandeep’s impactful punches proved lethal for another local favourite Tsend-Ayush Otgon-Erdene.