PANAJI: Gitika, Naorem Babyrojisana Chanu and Poonam put up dominating performances to win gold medals as they opened the campaign for India on a winning note on the penultimate day at the 2021 AIBA Youth Men’s and Women’s World Boxing Championships in Kielce, Poland on Thursday, says a Boxing Federation of India press release.
Providing the perfect start for the day, Haryana boxer Gitika, who came into the match beating two-time European champion Italy’s Erika Prisciandaro, defeated local favourite Natalia Kuczewska of Poland 5-0 in the women’s 48kg category final to secure India’s first gold medal at the ongoing event.
Chanu was equally good during her final in the women’s 51kg category. The Asian Youth Champion, Manipuri boxer looked in great touch as she secured a gold with a comfortable 5-0 win against the European Junior Champion Russia’s Valeriia Linkova.
Playing in the women’s 57kg final, Poonam also hit the aggressive mode from the word go and dominated her experienced opponent Sthelyne Grosy from France with precise punches. Poonam, another boxer from Haryana, notched up a thrashing 5-0 triumph to bag gold medal and continued her unbeaten run at the international level.
Vinka (60kg) Arundhati Choudhary (69kg) T Sanamacha Chanu (75kg), Alfiya Pathan (+81kg) will be other Indian women boxers fighting for gold medals later tonight while the only Indian men in the final, Sachin (56kg) will be in action tomorrow.
A 20-member Indian contingent have already created history by assuring 11 medals at the ongoing Youth World Championships bettering their previous best of 10 medals of the 2018 edition. Earlier in the men’s section Bishwamitra Chongthom (49kg), Ankit Narwal (64kg) and Vishal Gupta (91kg) won three bronze medals for the country with the semi-finals finish.
The 10-day biennial event has witnessed high competition among 414 boxers from 52 countries.
