New Delhi: Delivering a stellar performance, three Indian boxers have made it to the quarter-finals at the ongoing 72nd Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Among the three Udalguri girl Bhagyabati Kachari has booked her seat for the quarter finals on the second day of the tournament. Kachari outplayed Russian opponent Anna Galimova with a 5-0 win in the 75kg category.
Kachari who hails from Udmari village near Tangla in Udalguri is the daughter of Deben Kachari and Chaitra Kachari. She had previously participated and won a number of medals in national boxing championships along with clinching bronze in Asian Women's Boxing Championships held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia way back in 2012. Earlier, she clinched a gold at the Ahmet Comert International Boxing Tournament in Istanbul, Turkey in the 81 kg category in 2018.
A sports lover since childhood, Kachari steadily rose to fame after she joined the Sports Authority of India in Kokrajhar. Currently, she is employed with the Indian Railways and plays boxing Railways Sports Promotion Board. In December 2019 on behalf of the Railways she clinched a gold at the Women's National Boxing Championships at Kannur, Kerala.
Along with Kachari, Jyoti Gulia and Naveen Boora progressed to the quarter finals in the tournament.
On the second day of the boxing tournament, Jyoti Gulia entered the 51kg quarter-finals by upstaging two-time world champion Nazym Kyzaiby of Kazakhstan.
The 2017 World Youth Champion from Harayana outplayed Kyzaiby with an impressive 3-2 win. Earlier on Monday, she clinched a 4-1 victory against Ukraine's Tetiana Kob in the women's 51 kg.
In the men's category, Naveen Boora made it to the quarter-finals by defeating Armen Mashakaryan of Armenia B with a 3-2 win in the 69kg category.
However, in the men's category, there was disappointment in store for India as three of the wrestlers had to face a defeat.
Naveen Kumar (91kg) faced a setback to France's Wilfried Florentin 5-0, Ankit Khatana (75kg) lost to Belarus' Viktar Dziashkevich 2-3, while Sachin Kumar lost to Armenian Gor Nersesyan 0-5 in the light heavyweight (81kg) division.
The tournament started on a winning note for India as three boxers Deepak Kumar, Naveen Kumar and Jyoti Gulia put up dominating performances on the opening day of the tournament.
In the women's category on the first day three competitors faced defeat, Sakshi (57kg) went down to USA's Andrea Medina 1-4, Shashi Chopra (60kg) lost to Brazil's Beatriz Ferreira 0-5 and Lalita (69kg) lost her bout 0-5 against Uzbekistan's Navbakhor Khamidova.
A 12-member Indian team, comprising seven men and five women, is taking part in the tournament in which boxers from 30 countries, including top boxing nations such as the USA, Ukraine, France and Russia, are competing.
Apart from Boora, Manjit Singh will be competing tomorrow on the third day of the tournament.