Manipur girl Babyrojisana tames European champ Alexas; enters semis of world meet

NEW DELHI: Manipur pugilist Babyrojisana Chanu outclassed defending European Youth champion Alexas Kubicka at the AIBA Youth Men’s and Women’s World Boxing Championships as seven Indian boxers stormed into the semifinals on the seventh at Kielce in Poland today.

Alongside Chanu, Arundhati Choudhary (69kg), T Sanamacha Chanu (75kg), Ankit Narwal (64kg), Vishal Gupta (91kg), Bishwamitra Chongtham (49kg) and Sachin (56kg) also won their respective quarterfinal bouts to progress into the last-four stage.

With confirmation of seven more medals, India, who had sent a 20-member contingent, is now assured of 11 medals from the championship. Earlier yesterday, Vinka, Alfiya, Gitika and Poonam had advanced into semifinals and secured medals for the country.

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In a clash between two strong gold medal contenders in the women’s 51kg category, Asian Youth champion Chanu put up a strong tactical performance as she did not allow her Polish opponent Kubicka to score any point before securing a comfortable 5-0 victory to move into the next round. Manipur boxer Chanu will now take on Lucia Ayari of Italy in the semifinals.

Other women in action, Arundhati and Sanamacha were also dominant during their quarterfinals as the Rajasthan boxer outpunched Ukraine’s Anna Sezko 5-0 while Manipur’s Sanamacha sent Russian Margarita Zueva packing with the referee stopping the contest in the second round.

In the men’s category, Asian Junior champion Bishwamitra and Asian Youth Championship silver medallist Narwal also lived up to expectations and notched up easy 5-0 victories against Serbian Omer Ametovic and Brazil’s Ezequiel Da Cruz respectively in their round-of-eight clashes. Manish (75kg) and Sumit (69kg) were the only two country’s boxers who suffered defeats in the quarterfinals on the seventh day.

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Aiming to secure final berths, all the 11 Indian boxers will be seen in action in the semifinals on the eighth day of the competition. With seven women in the semifinals, India is placed at the top of the table alongside Russia with the highest number of boxers qualifying for the last-four stage. While in the men’s section, India is placed fourth with four boxers in semifinals.