Young pugilists from Haryana and Maharashtra dominated the day, moving into the medal rounds of the first BFI Sub-Junior Girls National Boxing Championships in Nagpur on Wednesday.
Of the 28 boxers that entered the semifinals, to be played tomorrow, 11 of them made the cut through their sharp skills are from Haryana while seven from Maharashtra shared the spotlights with them.
Six of Manipur boxers also entered the semifinals, reconfirming their status as a boxing powerhouse while Punjab, emerging as a new hub of boxing. Delhi made their presence felt with some fine decisions as four girls made it to the semis. Even a lone boxer from Dadar Nagar Haveli and Bihar have done themselves proud by reaching the medal rounds.
The highlight of the day’s bouts was that at least over a dozen bouts resulted in boxers getting the RSC verdicts in their favour, making the contests totally one-sided while in others the girls emerged winners on points.
Haryana’s Anchal Saini (52kg) and Maharashtra’s Kushi (36-38Kg) proved too good on the day. The bout between Anee of Sikkim and Anchal in the 52Kg class was as intense as it can get when the Haryana pugilist made deep inroads with her combination punches to send the Sikkimese almost to the ropes,the referee had to stop the contest with a few seconds still on the clock for the first round to get over.
Following her footsteps, Nisha (34-36Kg) of Haryana won rather easily on points (5:0) against Ayushi Koushal of Madhya Pradesh while her Haryana teammate Parineeta (34-36kg) repeated the performance against Kiran Raikwar, also of Madhya Pradesh.
Maharashtra’s Simran in 50kg dominated her bout and was an easy winner along with teammates Shakshi, Shreya, Devika and Madhura making the cut.
Delhi’s Kushi Sharma must consider herself luck to have reached the semifinals on a day her teammates fared poorly. The Delhi pugilist got an RSC (1st round) verdict in the 63kg class coming in her favour in less than two minutes after her opponent Tsring Lahamu from Arunachal Pradesh was at the receiving end.
Equally lucky were Siya (40kg) Riya Rawat (42kg) Sanjana (46kg) and Yamini Tanwar (52 kg) who made it to the semi-finals.
The girls from the northeast also had their share of luck with Tarh Yana of Arunachal beating Jenila of Sikkim 5:0 while Griviya Devi of Manipur overcoming a tough bout and opponent in Renu of Haryana to get a split verdict (3:2) in 48kg category along with 14 more boxers from North East making the cut in the first ever sub junior nationals.