Avneet battles into quarters

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 3 

Chandigarh’s Avneet Kaur tackled a tough Delhi pugilist, Shalakha Sansanwal, to book a berth in the quarterfinals on the fifth day of the Women’s National Boxing Championships in Vijayanagara on Thursday.    

Avneet prevailed 3-2 in a split verdict against her opponent in the middleweight (75kg) class.  

Lovlina Borgohain, who won a bronze at the World Championships in November, got a walkover in the welter class (69kg) pre-quarterfinals from Andhra Pradesh’s Marathamma Saitivada. The 21-year-old Assamese will be entering the ring for the first time when she takes on Mithrem Jagirdar of Gujarat, who outpunched Delhi’s Anjali in the quarters. 

Meanwhile, Four of Kerala boxers — Divya Ganesh (69kg), Indira KA (75kg), Anaswara PM (81+kg) and Fousiya AT (81kg) — entered the quarterfinals along with four boxers from Haryana. Three pugilists from Railways, two each from Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh and All India Police and one from Rajasthan also made it to the last-eight.

Fousiya got a walkover from AIP’s Neha Jhadav, Divya beat Tamil Nadu’s S Preethi 5-0, Indira achieved an RSC-1 decision against Gujrat’s Riya Upadhyay and Anaswara won 5-0 against Maharashtra’s Shayaan Pathan in the pre-quarters.

Among the Haryana’s quarterfinal entrants — 2017 World Youth Championship bronze medallist Anupama was the lone boxer who benefited from a walkover against Ravi Chandrika Balga of Andhra Pradesh. Nisha, Nupur and Pooja Rani showed their ring superiority to move ahead.