India’s Nikhat Zareen and Nitu continued their rampaging form to progress into the finals at the 73rd Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria on Friday.

The 25-year-old Nikhat secured a hard-fought yet convincing 4-1 win against Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu, while Nitu clinched a dominant victory against Hanna Okhota of Ukraine in the semi-finals.

In an intensely fought women’s 52kg semi-finals battle, the 2019 edition’s champion Nikhat put up a solid resistance against the Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Cakiroglu as both the boxers exchanged heavy blows and fought from a close distance.

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However, the boxer from Telangana, Nikhat held her nerves and tilted the result of the nail-biting encounter 4-1 in her favour with some hard-hitting punches.

In a contrasting women’s 48kg Last-4 bout, Nitu produced a well-composed performance against the 2018 World Championships silver medallist Okhota. Having taken an early lead after the opening round, the two-time world youth champion from Haryana, Nitu, capitalised on the momentum and executed timely and precise punches throughout the second round that saw her putting herself in a commanding position.

Eventually, the Indian progressed into the final after the Ukrainian boxer abandoned the bout before the start of the third round.

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Nitu and Nikhat will play their gold medal matches on Sunday at the Europe’s oldest international boxing tournament.

Later tonight, another Indian boxer Nandini will fight for a place in the final as she takes on Kazakhstan’s Lazzat Kungeibayva in the +81kg Last-4 stage.

On Thursday night, Arundhati Choudhary (70kg) and Praveen (63kg) bowed out in the women’s quarter-finals. While Choudhary lost to reigning Olympics champion Turkish boxer Busenaz Surmeneli 1-4, Parveen went down fighting against Russia’s Nataliya Sychugova 2-3.

The prestigious tournament witnessed the presence of over 450 boxers from 36 countries around the world, including strong boxing nations such as Kazakhstan, Italy, Russia and France.