World Boxing Championships: Seven Indians roar into finals; four settle for bronze medals

NEW DELHI: Young Indian boxers continued their dominance at the IBA Youth Men's and Women's World Boxing Championships 2022 as seven of them stormed into the finals with stunning victories in La Nucia, Spain.

Youth Asian champions Vanshaj and Vishwanath Suresh marched ahead along with Ashish to maintain their all-win record in the men's semifinals whereas Kirti (+81kg), Bhawna Sharma (48kg), Devika Ghorpade (52kg) and Ravina (63kg) progressed in the women's section.

While Chennai boy Vishwanath claimed a 4-1 win over Juanma Lopez of Puerto Rico; Vanshaj (63.5kg) and Ashish (54kg), who hail from Haryana, posted close 3-2 and 4-3 triumphs against USA's Deshawn Crocklem and Uzbekistan's Khujanazar Nortojiev respectively in their thrilling last four stage encounters.

The women's boxers, on the other hand, recorded comfortable wins apart from Kirti's 3-2 victory against Kazakhstan's Assel Toktassyn.

Ravina and Bhawna outpunched their Kazakh opponents, Assem Tanatar and Gulnaz Buribayeva, respectively by unanimous decisions. Maharashtra girl Devika got the better of USA's Aameedah Joy with a 4-1 margin.

Meanwhile, four other Indian women in action -Tamanna (50kg), Kunjarani Devi Thongam (60kg), Muskan (75kg) and Lashu Yadav (70kg) - signed off with bronze medals after defeats in their respective semifinals.

The Indian boxers have reasserted their supremacy at the prestigious championships as 11 out of 17 quarterfinalists went on to confirm medals — highest for any country at the ongoing edition, wherein close to 600 boxers from 73 countries were in the fray.

Uzbekistan are second with 10 confirmed medals while Ireland and Kazakhstan are placed jointly in the third position with seven medals each.

India's dominance in the women's section is another highlight of the tournament as eight pugilists have secured medals which is the most for any country followed by Kazakhstan (5) and Uzbekistan (4).

Bhawna, and Devika will fight for gold on Friday along with all three male boxers while others will play their finals on Saturday. IANS

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