Lovlina Borgohain likely to be India's only seeded boxer at Paris Olympics 2024

Lovlina Borgohain is expected to be the only seeded Indian pugilist among the Indian boxing contingent for the Paris Olympics 2024. The Paris 2024 Boxing unit (PBU), which will take care of organizing the boxing events, has confirmed a seeding system for the Games.

The ad hoc unit, consisting of representatives from all continents have been responsible for laying out the competition rules and the qualification criteria.

The seeding system aims to have a balanced difficulty level to keep the highest-ranked boxers away from the preliminary round of the competition.

As per the seeding system, eight boxers will be seeded in each of the 13 Olympic weight categories, including five continental champions and second-place finishers from the European, Asian, and American continental events.

Seeds 1 to 4 will be allocated randomly to the champions of the Asian Games, European Games, and Pan-American Games, while Seed 5 is for the champions of the African Qualifying Tournament and the Pacific Games.

Seeds 6 to 8 will be for the second-place finishers from the Asian Games, European Games, and Pan-American Games.

The draws for the final seeding will be conducted with all the participating boxers joining via an online link.

As per these guidelines, Lovlina Borgohain will be the only seeded candidate among the six Indian boxers for the Paris Olympics. This is because Borgohain won the silver medal (second-place finish) in the Asian Games 2023 after losing to China's Li Qian by unanimous decision in the final.

As a result, World champion Nikhat Zareen and World Championship bronze medalist Nishant Dev will be left unseeded and might face tougher opponents.

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Lovlina Borgohain will participate in a different weight category in Paris Olympics

At Tokyo 2020, Lovlina Borgohain became only the third Indian boxer after Mary Kom (2012) and Vijender Singh (2008) to win an Olympics medal. She achieved the feat in the women’s 69 kg boxing event. She clinched a bronze medal after losing to Turkey's Busenaz Surmeneli in the semi-finals.

However, with the 69kg category being scrapped, Borgohain has moved up to 75kg for the Paris Olympics. However, the talented pugilist expressed her confidence to compete in the new weight category at the Games.

"I am tall for a 69kg category boxer and I had to control my weight. When I had to control weight, I had to stop eating, I didn't feel that strong then. But at 75kg, I feel stronger. The speed which I already had helps,” Lovlina was quoted as saying by Sportstar.