Tokyo Olympian boxer Simranjeet Kaur cruised to the 60kg National Championships final, eking out a narrow win over Manisha Moun in the battle of the World Championship medallists on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old from Punjab, who won the bronze medal in the 2018 Worlds, registered a 4-3 split decision win in a fiery semifinal over 2022 Worlds’ medallist Haryana’s Manisha, who has moved up a weight class for a shot at the Olympic weight class, where India is yet to seal a quota.
“All my bouts were tough, I have treated every bout as a final. This bout was tough because she is also a world medallist and I had to beat her and most important is to play well,” Simranjeet said after the win.
She will clash against Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Jaismine Lamboria, who continued her dominant run, in the final. The 22-year-old, representing Services, notched a 5-0 win over Himachal Pradesh’s Menka Devi. Ankushita Boro of Assam and Services’ Arundhati Chaoudhary set a final clash with each other in the 66kg event.
Both Ankushita and Arundhati registered similar 5-0 wins over Deepika of Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland’s Sanju respectively.
World Championship silver medallist Manju Rani made a semifinal exit, going down to Minakshi by a unanimous verdict in the 48kg semifinal.
Another World Championship silver medallist Raliways’ Sonia Lather moved to the final with a 4-1 win over Punjab’s Mandeep Kaur in the 57kg last-four match.
World Champion Saweety Boora (81kg) and two-time Asian Championship gold medallist Pooja Rani (75kg) lived up to their top billing, registering facile wins in their respective semifinals.
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