Seven Indian pugilists enter final at Youth World Boxing Championship

The Indian contingent has already secured four bronze medals

Young Indian boxers continued their dominance at the IBA Youth Men’s and Women’s World Boxing Championships 2022 as seven of them stormed into the finals after their stunning victories in La Nucia, Spain.

All-win record

Youth Asian champions Vanshaj and Vishwanath Suresh marched ahead along with Ashish to maintain an all-win record for India in the men’s semi-finals whereas Kirti (+81kg), Bhawna Sharma (48kg), Devika Ghorpade (52kg) and Ravina (63kg) progressed in the women’s section.

While Chennai boy Vishwanath claimed a 4-1 win over Juanma Lopez of Puerto Rico, Vanshaj (63.5kg) and Ashish (54kg), who hails from Haryana, posted close 3-2 and 4-3 triumphs against USA’s Deshawn Crocklem and Uzbekistan’s Khujanazar Nortojiev respectively in their thrilling semi-final encounters.

Women boxers, on the other hand, recorded comfortable wins apart from Kirti’s 3-2 victory against Kazakhstan’s Assel Toktassyn.

Ravina and Bhawna outpunched their Kazakh opponents Assem Tanatar and Gulnaz Buribayeva respectively by unanimous decision. Maharashtra girl Devika got the better of USA’s Aameedah Joy with a 4-1 margin.

Meanwhile, four other Indian women in action—Tamanna (50kg), Kunjarani Devi Thongam (60kg), Muskan (75kg) and Lashu Yadav (70kg)—signed off with bronze medals after defeats in their respective semi-finals.

Reasserted Supremacy

Indian boxers have reasserted their supremacy at the prestigious championships as 11 out of 17 quarter-finalists went on to confirm medals—the highest for any country at the ongoing edition, wherein close to 600 boxers have participated from 73 countries.

Uzbekistan is second with 10 confirmed medals while Ireland and Kazakhstan are placed jointly in the third position with seven medals each.

India’s dominance in the women’s section is another highlight of the tournament as eight pugilists have secured medals which is the most for any country followed by Kazakhstan (5) and Uzbekistan (4).

Bhawna and Devika will fight for gold on Friday along with all three male boxers while others will play their finals on Saturday.