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Three Indian boxers enter finals of AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships
Jyoti Gulia (51kg), Shashi Chopra (57kg) and Ankushita Boro (64kg) claimed contrasting victories to enter the summit clashes of their respective weight categories in the AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships.
Three Indian boxers entered the final of the Women’s World Youth Boxing Championships being held at the Sarusajai sports complex here.
The first Indian to be assured of a silver medal was Haryana’s Jyoti, who had to lie to her parents to don the boxing gloves. The flyweight (51kg) boxer defeated Zhansaya Abdraimova of Kazakhstan in the semifinal to set up a title clash with Russia’s Ekatirina Molchanova on Sunday.
Jyoti foxed the aggressive Kazakhstan girl by fighting from a distance, and countering with the left jab followed by combination punches. After letting her guard down in the second round, she unleashed a barrage of jabs before clinching the bout by connecting a hook to Zhansaya’s face.
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Haryana’s Sashi Chopra too turned on the heat in her featherweight (57 kg) semifinal to blank Mongolia’s Namuun Monkhor. Such was Sashi’s ferocity that the Mongolian took a standing count in the second round.
Sashi will take on the formidable Hong Ngoc Do of Vietnam in the final.
The third finalist was local girl Ankushita Boro, who defeated Thailand’s Thanchnok Saksri in light-welter. After a slow start, Ankushita gained confidence and speed with a partisan crowd behind her.
Ankushita dominated the third round, bobbing and weaving to avoid her opponent’s punches. “I have to work on the pace to avoid getting tired in the last stages of the bout,” she said. Ankushita meets Ekaterina Dynnik of Russia in the final.
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India’s fourth semifinalist, heavyweight (81kg) Neha Yadav, was disappointing after she ran into a stronger opponent in Kazakhstan’s Dina Islambekova. She seemed to have no answers to what the Kazakh threw at her.
