AIBA Youth World Championships: Baby Chanu advances to quarterfinals

Chanu joins six other Indian boxers who have already progressed to the quarterfinals.  

Living up to her reputation, 2019 Asian Youth Champion Babyrojisana Chanu (51kg) defeated Diana Gorisnaja of Estonia to progress into the quarter-finals on the fourth day at the AIBA Youth Men’s and Women’s World Boxing Championships in Kielce, Poland.

The Manipuri pugilist, who recently won a gold medal at Adriatic Pearl tournament, did not put a foot wrong and showed her speed and skill right from the beginning. She carried on with the onslaught throughout the match and as a result, the referee had to stop the contest in the third round.

With this victory, Chanu is now the seventh Indian woman boxer to enter the quarter-finals as the pugilists are just a win away from securing medals for the country at this prestigious event. The other 6 Indian Women Boxers in the Quarter-finals of the Youth World Championships are Poonam (57kg), Vinka (60kg), Arundhati (69kg), Sanamacha Thokchom (75kg), Khushi (81kg) and Alfiya  (+81kg) 

In the men’s section, Ankit Narwal (64kg) showed excellent footwork and power to outclass Uzbekistan’s Akhmadjon Akhmedov in a hard hitting and busy bout to notch up a 5-0 win.  Meanwhile, in the 75kg middleweight category, Manish defeated Daniel Ilyushonok from Israel. He endured some early resistance and took his time to gauge his opponent but rebounded to win 4-1. Both Ankit and Manish have reached the pre quarter-finals. Another Indian boxer Jugnoo (+91kg) couldn’t progress further as he went down to Hungary’s Levente Kiss in 4-1 split verdict in the round of 16 bout.

Six Indian boxers --4 men and 2 women--will take the ring in the pre quarter-finals later today. Among men, Biswamitra Chongtham (49kg), Sachin (56kg), Ankit Narwal (64kg) and Vishal Gupta (91kg) will be in action whereas Gitika (48kg) and Nisha Gurjar (64kg) will also be looking to reach the quarter-finals on the fifth day of the World Championships.

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