PANAJI: The 2019 Asian Youth Champion Vinka and Alfiya Pathan are among the four Indian women boxers who advanced into the semi-finals on the sixth day at the AIBA Youth Men’s and Women’s World Boxing Championships in Kielce, Poland. Gitika and Poonam are the other two boxers who entered the last-4 stage and have assured at least a bronze medal for the country, says a press release by Boxing Federation of India.
All the four boxers put up scintillating performances in their respective quarter-finals bouts. Panipat boxer Vinka blanked her Colombian opponent Camilo Camela 5-0 in the 60kg category, while the 2019 Asian Junior Champion Nagpur’s Alfiya (+81) also registered a comfortable 5-0 victory against Hungarian boxer Reka Hoffmann. Playing in the 57kg category, Poonam notched up an easy 5-0 win against Nazerke Serik of Kazakhstan to progress into semi-finals.
Gitika (48kg) produced another strong show as she dominated her opponent Romania’s Elisabeth Ostan from the word go with precise punches and swift movement that saw the referee stopping the contest just after the first round and declaring Haryana boxer Gitika as the winner of the contest. Another Indian woman in action Khushi (81kg) lost her last-8 bout against Busra Isildar of Turkey.
In the men’s section, Manish (75kg) and Sumit (69kg) made their way into the quarter-finals in their respective categories with identical 5-0 victories against Jordan’s Abdallah Alaarag and Ladislav Horvath of Slovakia respectively in the pre-quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Akash Gorkha (60kg) and Vinit (81kg) could not progress further as they suffered defeats in their respective last-16 bouts.
Rajasthan boxer Arundhati Choudhary (69kg) alongside Naorem Babyrojisna Chanu (51kg) and T Sanamacha Chanu (75kg) will be seen in action on seventh day as they will play their quarter-finals while among the men, Ankit Narwal (64kg), Vishal Gupta (91kg), Bishwamitra Chongtham (49kg), Sachin (56kg), Manish (75kg) and Sumit (69kg) will fight for a place in the semi-finals.