La Nucia (Spain): Young Indian continued their dominance at the IBA Youth World Boxing Championships as seven pugilists stormed into the finals of the mega event across categories.
Youth Asian champions Vanshaj and Vishwanath Suresh marched ahead along with Ashish to maintain all-win record for India in the men’s semifinals whereas Kirti (+81kg), Bhawna Sharma (48kg), Devika Ghorpade (52kg) and Ravina (63kg) progressed in the women’s section on Wednesday.
While Chennai boy Vishwanath claimed 4-1 win over Juanma Lopez of Puerto Rico, Vanshaj (63.5kg) and Ashish (54kg), who hail from Haryana, posted close 3-2 and 4-3 triumphs against USA’s Deshawn Crocklem and Uzbekistan’s Khujanazar Nortojiev respectively in their thrilling semifinal encounters.
Women boxers, on the other hand, recorded comfortable wins apart from Kirti’s 3-2 victory against Kazakhstan’s Assel Toktassyn.
Ravina and Bhawna outpunched their Kazakh opponents Assem Tanatar and Gulnaz Buribayeva respectively by unanimous decision. Maharashtra girl Devika got the better of USA’s Aameedah Joy with a 4-1 margin.
Meanwhile, four other Indian women in action—Tamanna (50kg), Kunjarani Devi Thongam (60kg), Muskan (75kg) and Lashu Yadav (70kg) — signed off with bronze medals after defeats in their respective semifinals.
Indian boxers have reasserted their supremacy at the prestigious championships as 11 out of 17 quarterfinallists went on to confirm medals — highest for any country at the on-going edition, wherein close to 600 boxers have participated from 73 countries.
Uzbekistan are second with 10 confirmed medals while Ireland and Kazakhstan are placed jointly in the third position with seven medals each.
India’s dominance in the women’s section is another highlight of the tournament as eight pugilists have secured medals which is most for any country followed by Kazakhstan (5) and Uzbekistan (4).
Bhawna, Devika will fight for gold on Friday along with all three male boxers while others will play their finals on Saturday.
