Women’s National C'ships: World champion Saweety Boora, Pooja Rani advance

The reigning world champion Saweety Boora and two-time Asian Championships gold medallist Pooja Rani entered the round-of-16 at the 7th Elite Women’s National Boxing Championships with contrasting victories on the second day at the GBU Indoor Stadium in Greater Noida.

While Saweety faced a tough challenge from Alfiya of Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) before securing a 4-1 win in the 81kg match, Tokyo Olympian Pooja dominated the proceedings against Renu of Nagaland in 75kg bout as she completed a commanding 5-0 victory.

Besides Saweety and Pooja, the 2022 World Championships bronze medallist Manisha Moun (60kg) and Saneh (70kg) were the other boxers from Haryana to clinch victories and enter the Last-16 stage.

Meanwhile, Nupur of RSPB went head to head against Himanshi Antil of Delhi in her 81+kg round-of-16 match. Demonstrating swift and aggressive boxing, Nupur wasted no time in securing the victory in the first round with Referee Stopping the Contest (RSC) verdict. Nupur will be up against Monica Sahun of Uttarakhand in the quarter-finals.

The second day also witnessed domination from Uttar Pradesh boxers as four registered convincing wins in their respective matches. While Aprajita Mani (57kg) and Rinky Sharma (63kg) beat Maharashtra’s Aarya Bartakke (5-2) and Tamil Nadu’s V Monisha (5-0) respectively, Rekha (66kg) and Deepika (75k) notched up RSC wins against their respective opponents Pooja Biswas of Telangana and Odisha’s Sunita Jena.

The ongoing prestigious tournament, organised by the Boxing Federation of India, has been witnessing the participation of more than 300 boxers competing in 12 categories. The finals will be played on Wednesday.