World Championship bronze medallist Assam’s Lovlina Borgohain attained the gold medal while Haryana boxer Manisha Moun had to be satisfied with silver at the Women’s National Boxing Championships, that concluded at Vijayanagara on Sunday.
Manisha went down to Meenakumari Devi of All India Police in 54 Kg class, leaving Haryana boxing to be satisfied with 3 gold medals through the reliable Pinki Rani Jangra (51 Kg), Neeraj (60 Kg) and Pooja Rani (81 Kg), despite 6 of their boxers entering the finals.
This meant both Haryana and the Railways shared 6 out of the 10 gold medals on offer on the final day with Sonia Lather (57 Kg), Neetu (75 Kg) and Seema Poonia (+81 Kg), as the 3 RSPB pugilists reached the top place on the podium.
Punjab earned 2 medals through Patiala girl Manju Rani (48 Kg) and Simranjit Kaur while the other gold in 69 Kg went to World Championships medallist, Lovlina Borgohain of Assam.
Watch the Champions LIVE!??
While the ladies rock the ring and lash out the punches at the @jswsports Sports presents the 3rd Elite National Women Boxing Championship grand Finale.
Click on the link ?to watch the final LIVE. https://t.co/NQ7E2YPcu3 ??? pic.twitter.com/BYVMBs8Xix— Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) January 6, 2019
Unbeatable performance by Manju Ranu and Pinki Rani
Manju Rani easily stopped Tamil Nadu’s S Kalaivani with a split (4-1) verdict in the final as she packed more than a few punches to stagger her rival. In her maiden attempt, she clinched the gold medal.
In flyweight category, Pinki Rani had to fight hard for the gold versus Telangana’s Nikhat Zareen. Nikhat took the initiative and opened with few lefts and then sent down some combination punches.
Bellary #Karnataka
3rd Elite #Women National Boxing Championship ?
2nd to 6th January 2019#BSF #boxers
Vanlal Duati and
Sandhay Rani Devi won #bronze ?Kudos boxers and coaches, more power to you?? pic.twitter.com/JJ9yEB1wUG
— BSF (@BSF_India) January 6, 2019
Pinki tried to steady herself with good counters but there was no let up from Nikhat who was continuously trading blows. But eventually, Pinki landed more punches on target areas which helped her earn the verdict of judges 3-2 in her favour.
There were 2 other bouts in the middleweight (75 Kg) and heavy (+81 Kg) which attracted the attention of spectators as Railways’ Neetu beat Haryana’s Nupur and Seema Poonia, who scrapped through versus Kavita Chahal of AIP, getting a 3-2 decision.
Both Neetu and Seema were passive to start with before upping the ante towards the end of second and third rounds even as they kept their opponents, Nupur and Kavita, busy even while the eventual silver medal winners did make serious attempts with good number exchanges of counters.
Veteran pugilist, Sonia Lather didn’t have to go full blast against Shashi, who failed to produce the form of her semifinal bout and went down tamely as the Railways pugilist won 5-0.
Watch the 2⃣0⃣1⃣8⃣ gold medalist at Belgrade International, @nikhat_zareen unleash a flurry of punches against Likhita Battini in her 51kg bout at the 3rd Elite Women’s National Boxing Championship#PunchMeinHainDum #boxing pic.twitter.com/SNB2HeV7Bu
— Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) January 2, 2019
Others who won their bouts included Neeraj of Haryana, who defeated Preeti Beniwal of AIP. Simranjit Kaur, the silver medal winner at the worlds, edged out Pwilao Basumatary of AIP and Lovlina Borgohain, also a medal winner at the New Delhi world championships, beat Railways Pooja quite easily.
Haryana was declared the best team while Simranjit of Punjab adjudged the best boxer and Tamil Nadu’s S.Kalaivani and Telangana’s Nikhat declared the most promising and challenging boxer respectively.
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