Haridwar: World Championships silver-medallist Sonia Lather was knocked out following a stunning second-round loss but other international medallists pulled off comfortable wins to advance to the quarterfinals of the National Women’s Boxing Championships, here today.
Sonia (57kg), representing Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) was outwitted 1-2 by Uttarakhand’s Kamla Bist, who is also pursuing a coaching diploma from the National Institute of Sports in Patiala.
Sonia’s loss was the biggest upset of the tournament, which is largely playing out to expectations. The former Asian silver-medallist delivered a good performance but could not get judges’ nod against her equally aggressive rival.
In other results, former World Championships silver-medallist Sarjubala staved off a spirited challenge from Mizoram’s Rebecca Lal to enter the quarterfinals.
Sarjubala, competing for Manipur in the light flyweight (51kg) category, edged past Rebecca via a split decision of 2-1 after an engrossing four-rounder that pushed the gold medal favourite quite hard.
A tempo boxer, who prefers to go all out from the very first round, Sarjubala was matched punch-for-punch by Rebecca but her failure to sustain the intensity gave Sarjubala the victory.
The former junior World Championship silver-medallist will be up against Delhi’s Pooja Tokas, who outpunched Tamil Nadu’s K Nivedita 3-0.
Another former World Championships silver-medallist Saweety Boora (81kg), who is representing Haryana had no trouble sailing past Punjab’s Ninderjeet Kaur 3-0.
Saweety, also an Asian Championships silver-medallist, was in fine rhythm and displayed some excellent footwork. Despite being shorter in height, Saweety managed to dominate her rival with some precisely-connected uppercuts to the body.
It was smooth sailing for former junior World Champion Nikhat Zareen (51kg) too. She hardly broke a sweat in her contest against Rajasthan’s Jyoti and won comprehensively.
The Telangana girl put up a dominating performance to prevail 3-0 in the contest and set up a clash with Assam’s Manju Basumatry. Basumatry got the better of All India Police’s Anjali Mehta.
Also making the last-eight stage was former Asian silver-medallist Pavitra (64kg). She scored a Technical Knockout in the third round of her pre-quarterfinal bout against local favourite Nivedita.
Pavitra will square off against Punjab’s Simranjeet Kaur in the quarterfinals tomorrow.
Manipur’s Sandhya Rani, who had upstaged two-time World Championships bronze-medallist Chhoto Laura in the opening round yesterday, continued her fine form to enter quarters.
She defeated Rajasthan’s Neha Bhambu via a Technical Knockout in the third round of her pre-quarterfinal contest.
PTI