National Boxing Championship: Pooja Rani storms into quarter-finals

Haryana boxer Pooja Rani stormed into the semi-finals with a dominant RSC (Referee Stops Contest) win in the quarter-finals of the 5th Elite Women’s National Boxing Championship.

Pooja Rani, the reigning Asian Champion in the 81 kg category, outclassed Kerala’s Parvathi P in the first round with a commendable performance. Such was the ferocity of Pooja Rani’s punches that the referee had to stop the contest in the first round itself.

The fourth day of the 5th Elite Women’s National Boxing Championship at the St Joseph’s International School in Hisar also saw World Youth Champions Nitu of Haryana and Ankushita Boro of Assam maintain their winning streak.

Read: Men’s World Boxing Championships: AIBA to award champions with belt and solid gold medals

The two boxers as they confirmed their places in the quarter-finals in the 48kg and 66kg boxing categories respectively.

The fleet-footed Nitu outclassed her opponent West Bengal boxing sensation Purabi Karmakar 5-0 in the 48kg category. If Neetu was all speed and maneuver, Ankushita, taking on Punjab boxing woman Amandeep Kaur in the 66kg category, brought out her power game, hitting her opponents with powerful jabs and uppercuts, resulting in a dominating victory via referee stops contest (RSC).

Excellent boxing on display

Also booking slots in the quarterfinals in the 48kg category are Railway Sports Promotion Board boxing woman Manju Rani, who won a silver medal on debut at the 2019 World Championships, and Tamil Nadu's S Kalaivani.

Manju displayed tactical superiority as she comfortably defeated Uttarakhand's Sobha Kahali 5-0 in her pre-quarter-final match on Sunday, while Kalaivani outpunched Gujarat's Shital Dataniya and won the bout after the referee stopped the contest in the second round.

Joining Ankushita in the 66kg category is All India Police's Lalbuatsaihi who won a lopsided contest against Haryana's Jyoti Rani 5-0.

In the 63kg category, Haryana's Parveen warded off the challenge of Chaoba Devi Hemam of All India Police 4-1 to make it to the quarter-finals, while Madhya Pradesh boxing star Manju Bamboria faced no problems against Mizoram's Abisak Vanlalmawii, whom she beat after referee stopped the contest.

The gold and silver medallists of the 5th Elite Women’s National Boxing Championship will earn themselves a place in the national coaching camp. The remaining two names for the camp in each category will be selected on the basis of performances in the selection trials, which will take place right after the nationals.