National women’s boxing c’ships: Nikhat, Manju record wins to enter quarterfinals

Reigning World champion Nikhat Zareen and 2019 Worlds silver medallist Manju Rani won to enter the quarterfinals in their respective weight categories on the third day of the National women’s boxing championships.

Nikhat Zareen (in red) in action on Thursday. | Photo Credit: BFI Media

Reigning World champion Nikhat Zareen and 2019 Worlds silver medallist Manju Rani recorded commanding victories to enter the quarterfinals in their respective weight categories on the third day of the National women’s boxing championships, here on Thursday.

Nikhat, representing Telangana, outpunched Meghalaya’s Eva Waynie Marbaniang in a 50kg pre-quarterfinals bout.

Railways’ Manju defeated Uttarakhand’s Kavita comprehensively in a last-16 bout in 48kg.

Another Railways boxer, Jyoti Gulia, a 2017 World youth champion, progressed to the 52kg quarterfinals after getting a unanimous verdict against Jharkhand’s Neha Tantubai.

Important results (preliminary rounds)

48kg: Manju Rani (RSPB) bt Kavita (Utk) 5-0, Nikita (Har) bt Yashika Rai (Sik) 4-1; 50kg: Nikhat Zareen (Tel) bt Eva Wayne Marbaniang (Meg) 5-0, Tanniksha Chawar (Goa) bt Ayushi Awasthi (MP) 4-3; 52kg: Jyoti Gulia (RSPB) bt Neha Tantubai (Jha) 5-0, Sonia (UP) bt Manit (Pun) 5-2, Sakshi Choudhary (SSCB) bt Sandhya Kanojia (Del) RSC-R3.

54kg: M. Dhivya (TN) bt Muni Leya (Aru) 5-0, Divya Pawar (MP) bt Monika (Chd) 5-0; 57kg: Vinakshi (HP) bt Neha (Raj) 5-0, Mandeep Kaur (Pun) bt Sneha Gupta (Jha) 5-0, Nirmal (Nag) bt Minaxi Bhanushali (Guj) 4-0.

60kg: Simranjit Kaur (Pun) bt Pooja Behra (Jha) RSC-R2, Renu (Chd) bt Menka Thakur (MP) 4-3, Poonam (RSPB) bt Greetta Saji (Ker) 5-0.

63kg: Mahi Lamba (MP) bt Sakshi Bisht (Utk) 5-0, Niharika Gonella (Tel) bt Siwi (Har) 4-1, Shashi Chopra (RSPB) bt Shiwani Kumari (Jha) 5-0, Rekha Tewatia (AIP) bt Tanvi Kaushal (Del) 5-0.

70kg: Jyoti (RSPB) bt Ruchita Rajpoot (Guj) 5-2, Kusum (Har) bt Shretima Thakur (HP) 5-0; 81kg: M. Sribhavana (TN) bt Akansha (Del) 4-0, Sushma (AIP) bt Kanishka (UP) 5-0; +81kg: Nupur (RSPB) bt Sneha Singh (Del) RSC-R2, Saara Qureshi (Tel) bt Roshini (Kar) 5-0.