Nikhat Zareen begins her campaign at the Asian Games against two-time Asian Champion Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam in her opening bout on Sunday.
Credit: PTI File Photo
When the Indian boxers enter the ring each time inside the Hangzhou Gymnasium, the 34 Olympic quotas up for grabs will serve as an added motivation.
Led by the two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen and Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain, the 13-member Indian squad will see six women and seven men competing in 13 weight categories.
While Nikhat (50kg) and Lovlina (75kg), who have gladly taken over the burden of making the right kind of headlines from their senior Mary Kom, the other girls at the Asian Games - World Championship bronze medallist Parveen Hooda (57kg), Commonwealth Games medallist Jaismine Lamboria (60kg) and Preeti Pawar are expected to punch above their weight to make a mark.
Nikhat’s first hurdle seems to be a daunting one as she is up against two-time Asian Champion Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam. The 29-year-old Nguyen was the 27-year-old Indian’s opponent at the World Championships final in March in Delhi. But the Hyderabadi will take confidence from the fact that she had cruised to a 5-0 win to defend her world title successfully.
In contrast, Lovlina has a fairly easy outing. Having moved into a higher weight category from 69kgs, the Assam boxer has been handed an opening round bye and needs to win one bout before entering the medal round.
With a bye in the first round Jasmine will be up against Saudi Arabia's Ashour HGS and Arundhati Chaudhary (66kg) has an uphill task of facing the reigning world champion and local favourite Yang Lui.
Preeti will face Jordan's Alahasanat Silina while Parveen will take on Xu Ziehun of China in the 54kg and 57kg opening rounds respectively.
In the men’s section, six-time Asian Championship medallist Shiva Thapa is a man on a mission. The Guwahati boy will be keen on booking an Olympic berth after having missed the bus to Tokyo two years ago. The easy draw here has worked in his favour, too, and all eyes will be on him to sail into the final comfortably.
Deepak Bhoria, who defeated Amit Panghal in the 51kg section during the Asian Games trials, will be keen on living upto the expectations. Malaysia's Muhammad Abdul Qaiyum Bin Affrin stands in the way of the Hisar boxer in the opener.
Overall, the team looks strong and ready to better their performance from the previous edition where they returned with two medals (one gold and a bronze).
Squad: Women: Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg), Parveen Hooda (57kg), Jaismine Lamboria (60kg), Arundhati Chaudhary (66kg), Lovlina Borgohain (75kg).
Men: Deepak Bhoria (51kg), Sachin Siwach (57kg), Shiva Thapa (63.5kg), Nishant Dev (71kg), Lakshya Chahar (80kg), Sanjeet (92kg), Narender Berwal (+92kg).