Senior Boxing National: Nikhat Zareen, Pawan Bartwal, Sumit register dominant wins to reach quarters

New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) Two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen, World Boxing Cup Finals 2025 gold medallist Pawan Bartwal and Sumit dominated their respective opponents, while most other top players registered comfortable wins to reach the quarterfinals of their respective weight categories in the Elite Men and Women National Boxing Championships with easy wins at Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida on Wednesday.

This is the first time that the men and women National Championships are being held simultaneously at the same venue and 600 boxers from across the country are participating in 10 weight categories each for men and women.

In the women 48-51kg category, referee stopped the bout between Nikhat and Ladakh Kulsooma Bano in the first round due to the domination of the Telangana boxer while Pawan (men 50-55kg) defeated Lalit and Sumit (men 70-75kg) beat Madhya Pradesh Kapil after both the bouts were stopped in the third round.

Earlier, world champion Minakshi (women 45-48kg) continued her march with a comfortable 5:0 win over Annu of Jharkhand.

In the men 50-55kg category, Jadumani Singh comfortably beat Uttar Pradesh Manish Rathore 5:0 while 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Amit Panghal got the better of Chandigarh Krrish Pal 4:1.

On Tuesday, World Championship bronze medallist Pooja Rani and India international Jadumani Singh registered easy wins, while Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and experienced campaigner Amit Panghal were made to work hard to advance.

Pooja (75–80kg) of Haryana blanked Anju of Chandigarh 5–0 to assert her class, while Jadumani (50–55kg) was so dominant against R Parthiban of Tamil Nadu that the referee stopped the bout in the second round.

However, it was not an easy outing for two other established stars. Saweety pushed Assam’s Lovlina hard before the experienced campaigner prevailed 3–2 in a split decision.

In the men’s section, former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Amit Panghal (50–55kg), representing SSCB, edged past Priyanshu of Haryana by a 3–2 split decision.

--IANS

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