Reigning Asian Champ Pooja Rani sails into quarters of 5th Elite Women’s National Boxing Championships on Day 4

Reigning Asian champion Pooja Rani of Haryana entered the quarterfinals of the 5th Elite Women’s National Boxing Championship in the 81 kg category in dominant fashion on Sunday, knocking out Kerala’s Parvathi P in the first round of the pre-quarters match. Such was the ferocity of Rani’s punches that the referee stopped the contest in the first round itself, on Day 4 of the tournament at the St Joseph’s International School in Hisar, the venue of the prestigious event. Earlier on Sunday, World Youth Champions Nitu of Haryana and Ankushita Boro of Assam maintained their winning streak, as they confirmed their places in the quarter-finals in the 48kg and 66kg categories respectively. The fleet-footed Nitu outclassed her opponent Purabi Karmakar from West Bengal 5-0 in the 48kg category.

Fine performance by Nitu and Ankushita Boro

If Neetu was all speed and manoeuvre, Ankushita, taking on Punjab’s Amandeep Kaur in the 66kg category, brought out her power game, hitting her opponents with powerful jabs and uppercuts, resulting in a dominating victory via referee stops contest (RSC). Also booking slots in the quarterfinals in the 48kg category were the Railway Sports Promotion Board pugilist Manju Rani, who won the silver on debut at the 2019 World Championships, and Tamil Nadu’s S Kalaivani.

Manju displayed tactical superiority as she comfortably defeated Uttarakhand’s Sobha Kahali 5-0 in her pre quarter-final match on Sunday, while Kalaivani outpunched Gujarat’s Shital Dataniya and won the bout after the referee stopped the contest in the second round. Joining Ankushita in the 66kg quarters is All India Police’s Lalbuatsaihi who won a lopsided contest against Haryana’s Jyoti Rani 5-0.

In the 63kg category, Haryana’s Parveen warded off the challenge of Chaoba Devi Hemam of All India Police 4-1 to make it to the quarterfinals, while Madhya Pradesh’s Manju Bamboria faced no problems against Mizoram’s Abisak Vanlalmawii, whom she beat after referee stopped the contest. The prestigious seven-day tournament is being hosted in association with the Haryana Boxing Sangh. The Championships is being played as per the AIBA’s 12 weight divisions, which are 48 kg, 50 kg, 54 kg, 57 kg, 60 kg, 63 kg, 66 kg, 70 kg, 75 kg, 81 kg and +81 kg.

The gold and silver medallists will earn themselves a place in the national coaching camp. The remaining two names for the camp in each category will be selected on the basis of performances in the selection trials, which will take place right after the nationals.

Manju Rani makes presence felt after dominating start

Living upto the expectations, Manju put up a solid show to begin her campaign on a winning note on Saturday. Haryana’s Nitu also delivered an equally flawless performance as she beat Rajasthan’s Swasti Arya by a similar margin in another one-sided bout in the 48kg category.

Meanwhile, in the second round of the 50kg category, Punjab’s Komal and Andhra Pradesh’s Ramya Guduru registered hard-fought victories. While Komal recovered well in time against Madhya Pradesh’s Deepa Kumar to win 3-2, Andhra Pradesh’s Ramya Guduru defeated Uttar Pradesh’s Rinky Kishor 4-1.