Harpal Singh Bedi
New Delhi, 20 April ; Asian Youth Champion Babyrojisana Chanu overwhelmed European Youth Champion Alexas Kubicka as seven more Indian pugilists stormed into the semi-finals of the AIBA Youth Men’s and Women’s World Boxing Championships in Kielce, Poland on Tuesday.
With confirmation of seven more medals, India, who had sent a 20-member contingent, is now assured of 11 medals from the on-going championship.
Manish (75kg) and Sumit (69kg) were the only two Indian boxers who suffered defeats in the quarter-finals .
Alongside Chanu, Arundhati Choudhary (69kg), T Sanamacha Chanu (75kg), Ankit Narwal (64kg), Vishal Gupta (91kg), Bishwamitra Chongtham (49kg) and Sachin (56kg) won their respective quarter-final bouts to progress into the last-4 stage.
On Monday , Vinka, Alfiya, Gitika and Poonam had advanced into semi-finals and secured medals for the country.
In a clash between two strong gold medal contenders in the women’s 51kg category, 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 semi-finals.
Arundhati and Sanamacha were also dominant during their quarter-finals as Rajasthan boxer outpunched Ukraine’s Anna Sezko 5-0 while Sanamacha outclassed Russian Margarita Zueva 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 last-8 clashes.
All the 11 Indian boxers will be seen in action in the semi-finals on the eighth day of the competition. With seven women in the semi-finals,
India is placed at the top of the table alongside Russia with the highest number of boxers qualifying in the last-4 stage. While in the men’s section, India is placed fourth with four boxers in semi-finals.