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Day 1 of the of the AIBA Women’s Youth and Junior World Championships in Antalya, Turkey and five Indian Pugilists were in action at the Kepez Belediye Kapali Spor Salon, the competition venue. The event altogether has 264 boxers participating from 45 nations in what is the first Junior and Youth Women’s World Championship under the auspices of AIBA. 151 entrants are for the Youth Championships whilst another 113 for glory in the Junior competition.
The Indian campaign opened with bag of mixed results on the first day. Sanasri Brahma (51kg) in the youth event and, Pinki Kachari (54kg) in the junior event defeated their respective opponents to make to the next round of the championship.
Former junior national champion Sanasri, who was up against the Wennie Verano of the Philippines doused her opponent in a one sided contest. The southpaw boxer was dominating proceeding from the get go and did not give the Pilipino pugilist a single opportunity to recover in the four rounds of boxing. By the end of the third round the score was 27:7 as she went on to secure her place in the next round by virtue of a 30:10 victory. She will now meet Caudia Nechita of Romanian in her next bout. “It was an easy fight for me in the opening round; I stuck to our strategy and was able to capitalize on my opponent’s weaknesses. This has given me a lot of confidence and will work in my favour in the next rounds”, expressed an elated Sanasri after her bout.
Gold medallist at the Sub Junior Nationals last year, Pinki Kachari also got the better of Chernaka Johnson of Australia in what turned out to be an enthralling contest. Pinki, who was leading 14:7 after the second round, put paid to the Australians efforts of a comeback in the third and held on to score a 17:12 win on points. “I was a little nervous in the beginning, but once I got into my groove, I was able to play my natural game and win the bout”, stated Pinki after her fight. She will not take on Svetlana Khilchenko of Russia in the second round.
While two Indian boxers notched up wins on the first day of the contest, others did not have that good an outing. Alary Boro (75kg), Chanchan Devi (48kg) and Neeraj Bala (57kg) lost their opening round bouts. In the youth championships Alary lost out to Yakushina Yeroslava of Russia as she had to retire due to injury in the third round. In the Junior event Chanchan was all at bay against Kasumi Saeki of Japan and lost out by a huge margin, while Neeraj Bala too went down to Reyhan Cakir of Turkey.
Chief Coach of the youth team, D Chandralal, was happy with Sanasri performance and believes she will be able to make to the quarter-finals. He also said, “Although we had a loss today, but I am confident of a good showing by the rest of the team”.
Warm RegardsBrig PK Muralidharan Raja, SM, VSMSecretary GeneralIndian Boxing Federation
