Chandigarh, Delhi and Punjab boxers swept away majority of the wins on the second day of the third women’s National Boxing Championships at Vijayanagar on Tuesday.
The day began with a dominating performance by Delhi’s Riya Tokas in the 54kg category as she landed a flurry of punches in the first round against her opponent, V Vinodhini from Tamil Nadu.
Riya continued her attacking approach in the next two rounds and registered a unanimous 5-0 victory. She will now face World Championship quarter-finalist Manisha Moun.
Sohini from Chandigarh was in sublime form getting the better of Sai Sree Reddy from Telangana in the 69 kg category. She went on the offensive right from the start and landed some mighty blows, only for the referee to stop the bout in the first round.
The closest bout of the day was fought between Babita Bisht of Uttarakhand and Suman Khoda of Rajasthan in the 69kg category. Both the boxers kept the audience engaged as they traded some strong punches right from the start.
It was an even contest till the dying seconds and only in the last one minute of the third round the bout turned in the favour of Babita.
The Uttarakhand pugilist avoided a lot of punches with her sound defence and launched a string of clear punches to eventually win the bout with a 3-2 verdict. In the 60 kg category, Karnataka girl Bhavya displayed some fine technical skills and won the bout convincingly by 4-1 against Som Maya Subba of Sikkim.
In the bantamweight category, Riya Chouhan of Punjab started her game cautiously against Poulomi Sarkar from Bengal but went all guns blazing in the second round, only to be stopped by the referee.
Himachal Pradesh’s Sandhya defeated Sonal Rasal in the 64kg category. Sandhya used her technical superiority and played a waiting game before going on the offensive in the last and final round to finish off the bout in her favour.
Sandhya will be up against World Championship bronze medalist Simranjit Kaur on Wednesday. In the welterweight category, Gagandeep Kaur of Punjab rounded off a great day for her state by winning against Simran Mendon of Maharashtra 5-0.
The third day of the championships will witness international stars in action with the likes of Nikhat Zarin, Piny Jangra, Simranjit Kaur, Sonia Lather and Shashi Chopra battling it out for top honours.