Our Sports Reporter
GUWAHATI: Home boxers made a promising start in the Youth and Elite cateories at the REC National Open Talent Search Boxing Championship at the SAI Indoor Stadium here on Monday.
Nine Assamese boxers started the first day of the tournament with victories in the youth women’s category while two home boxers advanced to the second round in the youth men’s category. In the elite men’s category, four boxers from Assam won their first round matches. In the youth women’s 45kg category, Prantika Gogoi, Ilajyoti Pegu and Gina Hussain of Assam emerged winners while in the 48kg category, Nancy Bora, Rimpi Pegu and Bharti Kumari romped home; Aishree Hazarika and Akansha Bhardwaj won the first round matches in the 51kg category while Parismita Das won the first round bout in the 54kg category.
Meanwhile, Rajiv Ali and Junaid Anan advanced to the second round of the youth men’s 47kg and 60kg categories respectively while 10 young boxers from Assam lost their first round matches. In the elite men’s category, Gaurav Majumder in 46kg category, Anurag Bania and Sumraj Shaikia in 57kg category and Bhaiti Pegu in 63kg category qualified for the next round.
The tournament will be held till September 30 with competitions in all weight categories of sub-junior, junior, youth and elite men and women. All the players who reach the quarter-finals will qualify for the final round. The final round medal winners will be selected for further training at the national camp. The BFI will award prize money to the medal winners of each open competition.
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