Guwahati: Indian boxers remained on course for their best ever performance at the AIBA Women’s Youth World Championships, adding three more medals Wednesday to the already assured two, on the day of quarterfinals here.
Jyoti Gulia (51kg), Shashi Chopra (57kg) and Ankushita Boro (64kg) entered the semifinals after winning their respective quarterfinal bouts. They joined Neha Yadav (+81kg) and Anupama (81kg), who found themselves in the last-four stage due to the small size of the draws of their respective weight categories.
However, it was a bad day in office for Niharika Gonella (75kg) who bowed out of medal contention after going down to England’s Georgia O’Connor.
Gulia, an international gold-medallist, outplayed Italy’s Giovanna Marchese. The Haryana-girl was her trademark aggressive self and her dominance was consistent in all three rounds, earning an unanimous 5-0 verdict from the judges.
Chopra, also an international gold-medallist, found it easy to outclass the 10th seed Sandugash Abilkhan of Kazakhstan 5-0.
Squaring off against Italy’s Rebecca Nicoli, the local favourite Boro, two-time international silver-medallist, waved off a rather stiff challenge. What saved the day for Boro was her admirable footwork and reflexes. Nicoli remained on attack mode in all three rounds but struggled to connect due to Boro’s solid guard and quick movement.
India had won just one bronze medal in the previous edition of the event and the country has not won a gold in this event since 2011.
