New Delhi, August 20,
India’s junior women boxers completed their campaign with a rich haul of four gold, four silver and four bronze medals at the 3rd Nation’s Cup in Vrbas, Serbia on Sunday. While the contingent won the Runners-up trophy, India’s 48kg gold medallist Tamanna, who blanked Russia’s Alena Tremasova 5-0 in the final, picked up the coveted ‘Best Foreign Boxer’ award.
The other three gold medals were brought by Ambeshori Devi in 57kg, Preeti Dahiya in 60kg and Priyanka in 66kg. Manipur’s Ambeshori and Haryana’s Dahiya continued their fine runs from the Black Forest Cup in June to secure a hard-fought 3-2 win over Sweden’s Duna Sipel and Ukraine’s Kristina Kartavtseva respectively.
Haryana girl Priyanka, meanwhile, was absolutely flawless and secured a commanding 5-0 win over Russia’s Olga Petrashko.
In 50kg, Karnataka’s Anju Devi failed to repeat her heroics from the Black Forest Cup and had to settle for a silver after going down to Russia’s Anastasiia Kirienko 0-5. In 52kg, Maharashtra’s rising star Simran Verma lost to Russia’s Valeriia Linkova 0-5 while Haryana’s Manshi Dalal (75kg) and Punjab’s Tanishbir Kaur Sandhu (80kg) suffered a 0-5 defeat at the hands of Hungary’s Varga Boglarka and Russia’s Maria Proskunova respectively to grab the other three silver medals.
Goa’s Aashreya Naik gave her all in a gruelling 63kg semi-final bout but eventually had to taste a 2-3 defeat against local hope Aleksandra Tepavac to bag a bronze. Russia’s Viktoriya Zastryalina edged India’s Neha 3-2 in 54kg semi-finals forcing the Indian to remain content with just a bronze.
Khushi (70kg) and Alfiya Akram Khan Pathan (+80kg) delivered the rest of the bronze medals having lost to Norway’s Nofstad Sunniva and Russia’s Valeriia Vorontsova respectively by 0-5. Ragini in 46kg was the only Indian who wasn’t successful in getting a medal.
160 boxers from 20 countries had participated in this prestigious tournament. India had sent a 13-member squad out of which 12 returned home with medals, which speaks volumes of India’s upcoming boxing talent.
