Youth World Boxing Championships: India's Devika, Preeti cruise into quarters

New Delhi, Nov21: Young India women boxers Devika Ghorpade and Preeti Dahiya registered convincing wins and entered the quarter-finals while three others suffered defeats in the Last-16 stage on day six of the IBA Youth Men's and Women's World Boxing Championships 2022 in La Nucia, Spain.

The Pune-based pugilist, Devika made light work of Ireland's Margaret Lambe in the 52kg bout. Her impressive attacking display right from the word go eventually forced referees to stop the contest in the third round and declare Indian the winner by RSC verdict.

Preeti, who hails from Haryana, also put up an equally dominant show in the 57kg bout and hardly allowed her opponent Benedicta Maekinen of Finland to score any point before winning it comprehensively by unanimous decision.

Meanwhile, it was heartbreak for Mahak Sharma (66kg), Sahil Chauhan (71kg) and Bharat Joon (92kg)-whose challenge ended with losses in their respective bouts.

Mahak lost to Kazakhstan's Bakyt Seidish by a 0-5 margin in the women's section while Sahil and Bharat were defeated by Uzbekistan's Fazliddin Erkinboev and England's Damar Thomas by 0-5 and 2-3 respectively in the men's category.

The seventh day of the prestigious tournament will see 10 Indians, including five women, fighting in the quarter-finals.

Kunjarani Devi Thongam (60kg), Lashu Yadav (70kg), Griviya Devi Huidrom (54kg), Ravina (63kg) and Bhawna Sharma (48kg) will play in the women's section whereas Vanshaj (63.5kg), Deepak (75kg), Mohit (86kg), Vishwanath Suresh (48kg) and Ashish (54kg) are the country's male pugilists to be in action.

Semi-finals will take place on Wednesday (November 23) while finals on Friday and Saturday (November 25 and 26).

Earlier on Sunday, led by reigning Asian Youth Champions Vishwanath Suresh and Vanshaj along with six others progressed into the quarter-final on the fifth day of the tournament.

Vishwanath (48kg) was up against Attrativo Salvatore of Italy in the pre-quarterfinal bout. Chennai boy Vishwanath produced a clinical performance and showed his smart footwork and speed to convincingly win the bout 5-0.

Vanshaj (63.5kg), who hails from Sonipat was facing Spain's Kakulov Enrique in the round-of-16 match. The Indian boxer displayed his power and technical superiority to blank his opponent 5-0 and move to the next round.

Jadumani Singh (51kg), Ashish (54kg) and Deepak (75kg) were the other three men boxers to win their bouts unanimously and move to the last-8 stage. Jadumani and Ashish got the better of Spain's Jimenez Asier and Pamisa Eijay of Philippines respectively while Deepak defeated Argentina's Leiva Antonio.

In the women's section, Bhawna Sharma (48kg) and Asian Youth Champion Tamanna (50kg) won their respective bouts against Poland's Oliwia Zuzanna and Finland's Pia Jarvinen by RSC verdict and advanced to the quarter-final.

In the 54kg pre-quarter final bout, Griviya Devi overcame Romania's Ana Maria Romantov's challenge to secure a 5-0 verdict in her favour.

Aman Rathore (67kg) was the lone Indian pugilist to end up on the losing side as he lost 2-3 to Iraq's Yousif Hussein in a close bout.