Olympic bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and ace Indian pugilist Nikhat Zareen have been named in India’s 20-member squad for the World Boxing Championships 2025, scheduled to be held in Liverpool, England, from September 4 to 14.
The 20-member squad was finalised after the boxers went through a week-long assessment at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala.
The tournament will be the first World Championships held under the aegis of the new governing body of the sport, World Boxing.
It will feature competitions in 10 weight classes for men and women. It will also be for the first time ever that male and female boxers will compete in an Olympics-style boxing at the same event for the title of World Boxing Champion.
Borgohain will compete in the women’s 75kg category, while Nikhat will be seen in the 51kg. Olympian Pooja Rani also grabbed the women’s 80kg spot.
Commonwealth Games champion Nitu Ghanghas, however, missed the cut in the women’s 48kg, with the spot going to Meenakshi Hooda.
Both Borgohain and Zareen have won gold medals at World Championships before but these were under the previous governing body.
Both Zareen and Borgohain had missed the women’s nationals in March.
While the two-time world champion Zareen was injured at the time, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Borgohain had missed the event as the Assam state unit refused to send her due to infighting in the federation.
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The duo had competed at the Elite Women’s Boxing Tournament in Hyderabad earlier this month to return to the national camp, but they had also missed the recent World Cup in Astana.
The men’s squad includes Asian Games bronze medallist Narender Berwal (90+ kg), two-time World Cup winners Hitesh Gulia (70kg) and Abhinash Jamwal (65kg), among others.
