New Delhi [India], March 20 (ANI): The 2021 Asian Championships bronze medallist Sakshi Choudhary put up a stellar efficiency and registered a powerful victory to advance to the 52kg quarter-finals of the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships on the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi on Monday.
The dynamic 23-year-old pugilist from Haryana hardly put a foot fallacious in her commanding 5-0 win in opposition to the 2022 Asian Championships bronze medallist Zhazira Urakbayeva of Kazakhstan within the Last-16 contest. Utilising her attain to land relentless punches with each palms, Sakshi seemed to be in full management from the phrase go and prevailed within the first spherical. The two-time World Youth champion continued to dominate her Kazakh opponent within the subsequent two rounds together with her fast motion and good attacking technique to seal the victory comfortably by unanimous choice.
“The boxer from Kazakistan (Urakbayeva) was tough, so I thought that the fight scores may go up or down but after following the strategy of the coaches and BFI, I could play well and could further dominate the bout to win by 5-0. Moreover, the people that have come to cheer further motivated me to win. As it was my first time playing with her, me and my coach made our strategy by watching and analyzing the 7-8 videos of her previous tournaments. My confidence is growing as the bouts progress so through the vigour and the passion that I currently possess, I am definitely focused on clinching the gold,” Sakshi commented after the match as quoted by a press launch from the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).
The Indian will now sq. off in opposition to Wu Yu of China within the quarter-finals.
Later tonight, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) will tackle Vanessa Ortiz of Mexico whereas the 2022 Asian Championships bronze medallist Preeti (54kg) will face final World Championships’ silver medallist Jitpong Jutamas of Thailand of their respective Round-of-16 bouts.
Six Indians, together with the reigning world champion Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Nitu Ghanghas (48kg), Manisha Moun (57kg), Jaismine Lamboriya (60kg), Shashi Chopra (63kg) and Manju Bamboriya (66kg), will compete within the pre-quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Olympics medallists Irma Testa (57kg) of Italy, Nesthy Petecio (57kg) of the Philippines, Estelle Mossely (60kg) of France and Brazil’s Beatriz Iasmim Ferreira (60kg) will even be in motion.
The ongoing prestigious occasion is witnessing the participation of 324 boxers, together with a number of Olympic medallists, from 65 international locations preventing for titles within the 12 weight classes. The event has a large prize pool of INR 20 crore. (ANI)