Seema Poonia wins, Aruna Mishra gives walkover at Elite Women’s National Boxing

Seema Poonia annihilated Niharika Gonella in a lop-sided affair to advance into the second round of the Elite Women’s National Boxing Championships where she will take on Arpita Singh.

Asian Championship bronze medallist Seema Poonia of RSPB won, while the 2004 World Championship gold medalist Aruna Mishra gave a walkover in the 2nd Elite Women’s National Boxing Championships in Rohtak, Haryana, on Saturday.

The 2nd Elite Women’s National Boxing Championships, which began in Rohtak, Haryana, on Saturday, will serve as a selection event for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. (Getty Images)

Seema annihilated Niharika Gonella in a lop-sided affair to advance while Aruna gave a walkover to Madhya Pradesh’s Upasana Pandey.

Poonia started off the bout on an attacking note and put the burly Niharika Gonella on the backfoot as she showered her might on her opponent.

Gonella fought back to land her jabs from close range but Poonia’s strong hooks shook the Telangana challenger, who persevered through the rounds and tried her best to fight back.

At the end of three rounds, Seema registered a comprehensive 5-0 victory to advance to the next round where she would face a staunch fight from Uttar Pradesh’s Arpita Singh, who dominated her opponent and set up a mouth-watering clash against the recently crowned Asian Championship bronze medallist.

In another highly intense encounter, veteran boxer Bhagyabati Kachari of RSPB displayed her experience in the ring as she towered over Chandigarh’s Himani and asserted her dominance from the word go.

The initial phases of the first-round saw the RSPB boxer land vicious punches which left her opponent with no answers to the onslaught. Into the second round, the referee halted the contest twice before declaring Himani not fit to fight anymore.

Results:

Light Flyweight (45-48kg): R. Lalinmawii (Mizoram) bt Uma Bauri (West Bengal) - (5-0); Puja Ranpal (Sikkim) bt Manasa Mattaparthi (Telengana) - (3-2)

Featherweight (54-57kg): Kamla Bisht (Uttarakhand) bt Sangeetha M (Tamil Nadu) - (RSC-1)

Lightweight (57-60kg): Priyanka Thakur (Punjab) bt Charma Shachikant (D&D) - (RSC-1); Aradhana Patel (Uttar Pradesh) bt Shiwani Kumar (Jharkhand) - (5-0); Monika (Haryana) bt Suparna Das (West Bengal) - (RSC-1)

Light Welterweight (60-64kg): Aarti Kama (Gujarat) bt A. Manisha (Andhra Pradesh) - (WO); Sohini (Chandigarh) bt Poonam Kaithawas (Maharashtra)- (5-0);) Anjali Machahary (Assam) bt Majjiga Mounika Yadav (Telengana) - (RSC-1)

Welterweight (64-69kg): Nupur (Haryana) bt Babita Bisht (Uttarakhand) - (5-0)

Middleweight (69-75kg): Upasana Pandey (Madhya Pradesh) bt Aruna Mishra (Jharkhand) - (walkover); Alari Boro (Assam) bt Kumari J (TN) - (WO); Kavita Goyat (AIP)bt Renu (Uttar Pradesh) - (5-0)

Middleweight (75-81kg): Laxmi Padaya (Jharkhand) bt Saara Qureshi (Telengana) - (RSC-1); Bhagyabati Kachari (RSPB) bt Himani (Chandigarh) - (RSC-2)

Heavyweight (82kg): Jigyasa (Madhya Pradesh) bt Sangeeta (Uttarakhand) - (5-0); Arpita Singh (Uttar Pradesh) B. Ravi Chandrika (Andhra Pradesh)- (RSC-1); Seema Poonia (RSPB) bt Naganika Gonella (Telengana) - (5-0)