World Championships bronze medallists Lovlina Borgohain walked into the quarter-finals with to a walkover in the JSW Sports Sports Centre in Vijaynagar in the National Boxing Championships.
Kerala boxers Divya Ganesh (69 kg), Indira KA (75kg), Anaswara PM (81+kg) and Fousiya AT (81kg) entered the last four along with as many Haryana boxers. Three pugilists from Railways, two each from Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh and All India Police and one from Rajasthan also booked a quarter-final spot.
Except for Fousiya, who got a walkover from AIP’s Neha Jhadav, Divya beat Tamil Nadu’s S. Preethi 5:0 while Indira achieved a RSC decision in the first round against Gujrat’s Riya Upadhyay. Anaswara won on points (5:0) against Maharashtra’s Shayaan Pathan.
2017 World Youth Championship bronze medalist Anupama was the lone boxer who benefited from a walkover from Ravi Chandrika Balga of Andhra Pradesh. Nisha, Nupur and Pooja Rani showed their ring superiority to advance to the quarter-finals.
Lovlina will be entering the ring for the first time when she takes on Mithrem Jagirdar of Gujarat, who stopped Delhi’s Anjali with an RSC-1 verdict.
There were quite a few walkovers on the day, including Jharkhand’s Banty as she conceded to Chandigarh’s Sohini. The Chandigarh girl has earned a last-eight meeting with Meemthoi Devi of All India Police, who won 5:0 against Nancy Payasi of Madhya Pradesh.
There were quite a few RSC verdicts too. Haryana’s Nisha downed Soma Yadav of Bihar, Railways Pooja won against Babita Bisht of Uttarakhand (both in 69 kg).
Nupur, also of Haryana, won a RSC-1 decision against Sridivya A. Kandukuri of Andhra Pradesh in middle weight (75), Rekha of Himachal surprised Tamil Nadu’s J. Kumari with RSC-3 verdict and, finally, Punjab’s Manu Badhan beat Karnataka’s Devashree.
At the adjacent Ring 2, there were eight RSC decisions. Jigyasa Rajput of MP, Saara Afsaroodin Qureshis of Telangana, Mohini Thite of Mahrashtra and Pooja Rani of Haryana (all in 81kg) cruised to the next round.
Palwinder Kaur from Punjab, Rajasthan’s Barbara A Sampson, Kashna Kumari from Uttar Pradesh, and veteran Kavita Chahal from AIP also secured their berth in the quarter-finals.
The other winners included Pratibha Thakur (HP), Pooja (Delhi) and seasoned campaigner, Seema Poonia from the Railways, who had it as easy as it can get against Gonella Naganika of Telangana, winning the bout 5:0.
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