Commonwealth Games: Boxers Nikhat Zareen, Nitu, Hussamuddin assure medals; Lovlina Borgohain, Ashish lose

India’s star boxer Nikhat Zareen assured third medal for India in the discipline late on Wednesday when the reigning World Champion defeated Wales’ Helen Jones by a unanimous verdict (5-0) in the light flyweight category quarterfinals of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Out of the five judges, three gave the same scoring of 30-27 in Nikhat’s favour while the remaining two saw it as a close call at 29-28; sealing her semifinal berth and assuring a bronze at least. She will next face England’s Savannah Stubley in the last-four on Saturday (6 August).

Olympic bronze medallist Borgohain, on the other hand, was out-punched by last edition’s silver medallist Rosie Eccles of Wales. It was also curtains for Ashish Kumar (80kg), who went down to England’s Aaron Bowen by a 4-1 split verdict.

Leading by a slight margin in the opening two rounds, the 24-year-old Borgohain went down via 2-3 split decision in the light middleweight quarterfinal.

Borgohain had a point deducted for holding in the second round, which seemed to have psychologically hurt the two-time World Championship medallist.

Commonwealth Games:  India schedule ,  Results ,  Medals tally

Earlier Nitu Ghanghas also assured India of another medal, with victory over Nicole Clyde in the quarter-finals of the women’s 48kg event. This was followed by another medal confirmation as Mohammed Hussamuddin defeated Namibia’s Tryagain Ndevelo in a close bout by 4-1 split verdict to reach the semifinals of the men’s featherweight category.

While 21-year-old Nitu, a two-time youth gold medallist, was declared the winner by ABD (Abandon) when her Northern Ireland opponent Nicole Clyde threw in the towel in the third and final round of the quarter-final match.

Click here for our complete coverage of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

With PTI inputs