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2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships

2019 Women's World Boxing Championships: All you need to know, Team, Draw, Broadcast, Category

The Indian brigade will rest largely on iconic six-time World Championship gold medallist MC Mary Kom

2019 Womens World Boxing Championships: All you need to know, Team, Draw, Broadcast, Category
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By

The Bridge Desk

Published: 2 Oct 2019 2:09 PM GMT

A ten-member Indian squad is all geared up for the 11th edition of the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships starting in Russia's Ulan-Ude on 3 October. The Indian team will be high on morale following the best-ever show by Indian male boxers at the Men's World Championship concluding last month, where they finished with one silver and a bronze medal. Though the event won't serve as a qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, a medal, however, will ensure automatic qualification for next year's Olympic qualifiers. Indian boxers will compete in Asia/Oceania Olympic Qualifiers to be held in Wuhan, China from 3-14 February, 2020.

The Indian brigade will rest largely on iconic six-time World Championship gold medallist MC Mary Kom, who will look to shut her critics, who haven’t quite taken kindly to her ‘selection trial exemption’ for the 2019 World Championship. Mary, who claimed a historic sixth World Championships gold last year in Delhi (48kg), moved up a weight class after AIBA revised Olympic weight categories earlier this year. Since her pet 48 kg no more remains an Olympic weight category, she will be fighting in 51kg category. Mary is, however, not new in the 51kg category. Her Olympics bronze in London 2012 came in the 51kg category.

On the other hand, Lightweight (60-kg) boxer L Sarita Devi will be determined to end her 11-year medal drought in lightweight category at the World Championship since last winning a bronze in 52-kg category at the 2008 edition

Here's all you need to know about the Women's World Boxing Championships 2019:

The different weight categories 

The event will be held across 10 weight categories, though only five of them are Olympic classes.

World Championships weight categories: Light Fly (48kg), Fly (51kg), Bantam (54kg), Feather (57kg), Light (60kg), Light Welter (64kg), Welter (69kg), Middle (75kg), Light Heavt (81kg), Heavy (81+)

Olympics weight categories: Fly (51kg), Light (60kg), Light Welter (64kg), Welter (69kg), Middle (75kg).

M C Mary Kom

How many boxers are going to represent India?

Here's the complete Indian squad: 

Manju Rani (48kg), MC Mary Kom (51kg), Jamuna Boro (54kg), Neeraj (57kg), Sarita Devi (60kg), Manju Bomboriya (64kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg), Saweety Boora (75kg), Nandini (81kg), Kavita Chahal (+81kg).

The draw

Seeded-third, India's best boxer Mary Kom was handed a bye into the pre-quarterfinals. She will begin her campaign on October 8 against the winner between Germany's Azize Nimani and Thailand's Jutamas Jitpong.

In all, five Indians got first-round byes into different stages depending on the size of the draw. No Indian will be in action on the opening day of the mega-event.

Sarita Devi

Former champion and Mary Kom’s contemporary L Sarita Devi (60kg) is another one to watch out for after she defeated last edition’s bronze-winner and a much younger Simranjit Kaur in the trials. Sarita, seeded fourth, has also got a bye but into the round of 32. She will fight the winner of the bout between Russia's Natalia Shadrina and Algeria's Imane Khelif.

Outside the ring, the eight-time Asian medallist is in the running to become a member of the International Boxing Association’s (AIBA) first ever athletes commission, the voting for which will take place during the mega-event here. She is expected to make the panel as there hasn’t been any other nomination from the Asian bloc.

Previous edition’s bronze-medallist Lovlina Borgohain has moved up a division to 69kg this time. Borgohain, an India Open gold-medallist, has been seeded third and given a bye into the pre-quarterfinals, where she will face-off against the winner between Barbados' Kimberly Gittens and Morocco's Ahbib Oumayma

India Open gold-medallists Neeraj (57kg) and Jamuna Boro (54kg) are among the five boxers, who will be making their debuts at the big event and can be expected to create a flutter. Neeraj, a former national champion, has got a bye into the round of 32.

In the 75kg category, former Asian champion Saweety Boora will be keenly watched. She was a silver-medallist in the 2014 edition of the marquee tournament.

In the 48kg category, which Mary Kom made her own, Strandja Cup silver-medallist Manju Rani will be fighting it out this time. A debutant at the world championship, Rani got a bye into the pre-quarterfinals.

Among the veterans, former Asian medallist Kavita Chahal (+81kg) is in the quarterfinals due to the small size of the draw and will need just one win to be assured of a podium finish at the big event, where she has won two bronze medals in the past. She will face Belarus' Katsiaryna Kavaleva.

India’s best performance at the tournament was back in 2006 when the country, hosting the event, topped the medals tally with a haul of eight, including gold medals by Mary Kom and Sarita.

The Women's World Boxing Championships 2019 can be live-streamed on AIBA's YouTube channel. Stay tuned to TheBridge.in for regular updates.

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