With the exit of some of the big names by the semifinals stage of the 10th senior National women’s boxing at the JRD Tata Sports Complex here on Tuesday, many new faces are set to win their maiden title.
Leading the bunch was Pinky Jangra of Haryana, who had it easy against Hemani Mehta of Uttarakhand, winning 18-6 in the 46kg class. Pinky will take on Krishna Thapa of Madhya Pradesh in the final.
Sudesh of Chandigarh, who saw off another international Kalpana Choudhary of Railways in an earlier round, found her match in Mamta of Haryana and went down 3-7 in the 48 kg group.
Sunita Yadav of Railways, who shut the door on world championship bronze medallist L. Sarita Devi, was kept at bay by an ultra defensive Reena Kaushik of Chandigarh. Both failed to score a single point in four rounds.
The five judges awarded a unanimous 5-0 verdict in Sunita’s favour in the 54kg category. She will come up against the hard punching Assamese Pwilao Basumatary in the title round.
The most interesting contest of the day was in the 57kg category where Hemam Chaoba Devi of Manipur led her Mizoram rival Dorothy Lalchhanlimi 7-0 till the end of the third round. The well-built Mizo, however, showed exemplary courage and staying power to reel off nine points in the final round to romp home.
Dorothy will meet another technically sound fighter Priyanka Chaudhary of Uttarakhand in the final.
Last year’s defending champion Railways managed to place five pugilists in the final thus ensuring a fine chance of retaining the championship. Its closest rival, Haryana suffered major loses in the semifinals and has only three in the final. So is the case with All India Police Board which also has only three boxers in the title round.
