AIBA Youth World Championships: Eight Indian Boxers storm into finals

India puts up their best ever show in the tournament.

Indian pugilists posted a historic performance at the AIBA Youth World Championships as eight boxers, including seven women and one male boxer sailed into the finals on the eighth day in Kielce, Poland.

All the seven Indian women boxers put up a flawless performance as they progressed into the finals and will be aiming to add the yellow metal to their name.

In the first bout of the day, Gitika (48kg) set the tone for the Indian contingent with a resounding 5-0 win over Italy’s Erika Prisciandaro. She will take on Poland’s Natalia Dominika in the final. In another bout, with a fine display of speed and skill, 2019 Asian Youth Champion Babyrojisana Chanu (51 kg) made light work of Italy’s Elen Ayari and won the match comfortably.

The Manipuri Boxer attacked throughout the bout with a lot of intensity and earned a unanimous 5-0 verdict in her favour. She will square off against Russia’s Valeria Linkova in the finals of the AIBA Youth World Championships on Thursday.

Poonam (57kg) continued her unbeaten International record as she blanked Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova 5-0 in a power-packed performance to set up the summit clash with France’s Sthelyne Grosy.

Vinka (60kg) put up an equally impressive show to secure a 4-1 win over Veronika Gajdova of The Czech Republic.  She will be up against Kazakhstan’s Zhuldyz Shayakhmetova in the gold medal bout. Rajasthan’s Arundhati Choudhary (69kg) too outpunched her opponent from Uzbekistan, Khadichabonu Abdullaeva to register an easy 5-0 victory in the semis. She will take on Poland’s Barbara Marcinkowska in the final clash.

In the 75 kg middleweight semi-final clash, Sanamcha Chanu endured some early resistance from local girl Daria Parada of Poland but after gauging her opponent’s strategy, Chanu came back strongly in the last two rounds to win the bout with a split verdict (4-1). She will take on Kazakhstan’s Dana Diya in the gold medal match of the AIBA Youth World Championships.

Another star boxer, Alfiya Pathan (81kg) faced tough competition from Poland’s Oliwia Toborek as couldn’t find her rhythm in the initial round. In the second round, she went all-out attack and continued her onslaught in the next round as well and in the process, landed more punches than her opponent to prevail in a 3-2 split verdict in a busy and intense bout.

Alfiya will be up against Moldova’s Daria Kozorev in the final. Among the men, Sachin (56kg) was the only Indian Boxer to progress into the finals as he comfortably defeated 2018 European Junior Champion Michele Baldassi of Italy 5-0 to set up the summit clash with Kazakhstan’s Yerbolat Sabyr.

Three other men inaction- Bishwamitra Chongthom (49kg), Ankit Narwal (64kg) and Vishal Gupta (91kg) couldn’t progress further as they lost their semi-final bouts and signed off with bronze medals.

In total, Indian Youth Boxing Team have created history by securing an unprecedented 11 medals. The previous best was 10 medals that the Indian contingent won at the World Youth Championships in 2018 in Hungary.

All the women Boxers will play their final bouts on Thursday whereas Sachin will play the final on Friday.

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