Harpal Singh Bedi
New Delhi, 25 August: Promising youngster Muskan displayed her brilliant form and blanked Yelyanur Turganova to storm into the final on the fifth day of the ASBC Asian Youth & Junior Boxing Championships in Dubai.
In the Junior boys section, Rohit Chamoli (48kg) and Bharat Joon (+81kg) advanced into the finals after registering identical unanimous victories in their respective Last-4 bouts. However, the third Indian in the fray Ankush (66kg) suffered a 0-5 defeat in his semi-final match.
Muskan (46kg), who hails from Haryana, blanked thrashed her rival from Kazakhstan in a one-sided bout that saw the Indian boxer playing swift and smart boxing from a long-range. She maintained her dominance throughout the three rounds and secured a unanimous 5-0 win.
In the Bantamweight semi-final, Aarzoo (54kg) lost to Uzbekistan’s Tileubergenova Guldana in an evenly contested bout. Both the boxers threw caution to the wind and attacked each other from the start The Indian pugilist gave her best but narrowly lost the bout 2-3 in an intense match.
Meanwhile, Devika (50kg) and Supriya (66kg) also lost their respective semi-final bouts and had to be content with the bronze medals.
Having already secured themselves and the country medals, nine Indian Youth pugilists, including four women, will aim for a spot in the final as they play their semi-finals on Day 6 of the prestigious continental event, in which both the age groups—junior and youth—are playing together for the first time.
Among men, Vanshaj (64kg), Daksh (67kg), Vishal (80kg), Abhimanyu (92kg) and Aman Singh Bisht (+92kg) will be seen in action while Simran Verma (52kg), Preeti (57kg), Preeti Dahiya (60kg) and Sneha (66kg) will fight in the youth women’s category.