City boxer Gargi starts off with a victory

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 31

Chandigarh’s Gargi knocked out Atulya Das of Kerala to start her campaign in the 3rd Elite Women’s National Boxing Championships on a positive note. 

Competing in the 51kg category at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) in Vijayanagara on Monday, Gargi proved too good for her opponent forcing the referee to stop the bout midway. 

Earlier, the opening day of the competition began with a couple of tough bouts in the 48kg class. 

In the first bout, Delhi’s Kushboo Tokas overcome a technically-sound Sabitro Limboo from Sikkim. The Delhi girl won 3-2 in the split verdict.

Both pugilists went all out from the first round as they traded blows and attacked the target areas to attract the judges. By the second round, it was more or less even with the two boxers punching their way to the next round.

Kushboo, though, managed to land a few straight punches on her opponent in the final round which tilted the balance in her favour.  

Taking a cue from Kushboo, Andra Pradeh’s Jyoti Groli fought well to overcome Anjali Sharma from Madhya Pradesh in another split verdict. 

There were as many as six RSC (referee stops the contest) decisions on the opening day, which saw as many as 18 bouts.

Pallavi of Himachal Pradesh forced the referee to stop the contest in the first round when she landed severe left-right combination punches on her Pudhucherry opponent Sivaranjani Karthikeyan in the light fly category. 

UP’s Rajni Singh took two more rounds to end the ordeal of her West Bengal rival Manica Kumar Pandey. 

In another interesting bout in the 48kg class, S Kalaivani of Tamil Nadu won a 4:1 verdict against Uttarakhand’s Archana Thapa. 

Rajasthan’s Poonam beat Shruti Sharma in fly class (51kg). The referee stopped the contest midway through the second round with Poonam landing a few hard blows on her opponent which had a staggering effect on her.

Top boxers like Pinky Jangra, Sonia Lather, Bhagyabati Kachari and 2017 World Youth Championship gold medallist Shashi Chopra will be action on the second day of the championship.