NEW DELHI, Feb 25: Former junior world champion Nikhat Zareen (52kg) and Nitu (48kg) stormed into the finals of the 73rd Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria after notching up brilliant victories in the last-four stage on Friday.
Nitu pummelled her Ukrainian rival Hanna Okhota, who threw in the towel at the end of the second round. Zareen, on the other hand, claimed a 4-1 victory over Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakioglu to make it to the final.
The 25-year-old Zareen had won a gold medal in the 2019 edition of the tournament.
“Nitu picked up a monstrous win. The Ukrainian girl was so exhausted, she told her coaches she didn’t want to fight and their camp gave up the fight,” India women’s team coac Bhaskar Bhatt told PTI from Sofia.
However, youth world champion Arundhati Choudhary (70kg) and Parveen (63kg) bowed out after losing closely-contested quarterfinal bouts.
Choudhary, the reigning national champion, was out-witted 1-4 by reigning Olympic champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey, while Parveen went down 2-3 to Russia’s Nataliya Sychugova in the last-eight stage on Thursday.
Surmeneli, who is also a world champion, had beaten India’s Lovlina Borgohain in the Olympic semifinals last year in Tokyo.
“Arundhati fought hard but couldn’t get the desired result. Parveen brought her best in the final round but by that time it was a bit late,” Bhatt said..
Later tonight, Nandini (+81kg) will compete in the semifinal against Kazakhstan’s Lazzat Kungeibayeva, a former world champion.
The tournament features over 450 boxers from 36 countries, including traditional powerhouses such as Kazakhstan, Italy, Russia, France and Ukraine, where Russia launched a military operation on Thursday despite global appeal for restraint.
A 17-member Indian contingent, including seven men and 10 women, was sent to participate in the tournament and has managed to improve the medal count by one so far.
India won two medals in the last edition with Deepak Kumar and Naveen Boora securing silver and bronze respectively. The performance of the men’s squad has been underwhelming this time with none of them managing to enter the medal rounds. (PTI)
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