NEW DELHI: In a re-run of the Mary Kom-Nikhat Zareen saga, reigning World youth and newly-crowned senior Nationals champion in the women’s 70kg category, Rajasthan’s Arundhati Choudhary, has demanded a selection trial against Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) for a place in the Indian team for the upcoming AIBA women’s World Championships in Istanbul in early December.
Arundhati had capped off her brilliant run at the recently-concluded senior Nationals in Hisar, defeating established boxers from Haryana, Railways and Services en route her gold-medal triumph.
To make her voice heard, Arundhati has approached the offices of Boxing Federation of India’s (BFI) president Ajay Singh, requesting a trial in the newly-introduced light middleweight (70kg) category for the Worlds.
The BFI had earlier announced that the gold-medal winners at the Nationals would be automatically selected in 11 weight categories for the Worlds, except for 70kg, in which Lovlina has been offered direct qualification. As a result, the 24-year-old two-time World medallist from Assam had skipped the Nationals.
In her letter to the BFI chief, Arundhati has highlighted Lovlina’s time away from the boxing ring since Tokyo to justify her demand for the trial.
“Sir, in my weight category, Lovlina has won a bronze Olympic medal. Lovlina is out of practice since then, and if I am given an opportunity for a trial, I have a good chance of winning a medal for India. Sir, even in the past, great boxer Mary Kom had given trail...(sic),” Arundhati wrote.
The 20-year-old Kota girl was referring to the bout between Mary Kom and Nikhat Zareen in December 2019, after the Telangana boxer had demanded a face-off between the two in a trial bout to select the winner in the 51kg category to represent the country at the Olympic qualifiers in Wuhan.
