Nagpur, July 18
Nagpur, Living up to the reputation and favourite’s tag, current world champion Alfiya Pathan dished out a solid performance in her opening rounds at the 4th Youth National Boxing Championships in Delhi Public School, Sonipat on Sunday. The tournament marked a return of domestic boxing action in the country after more than a year-gap due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Alfiya ( 81kg) while representing Maharashtra outpunched Punjab's Yashasvi Pathania 5-0 in the opening round match and advanced into the quarter-finals.
Alfiya was amongst the seven Indian women boxers who clinched gold medals and scripted history at the Youth World Championships in Poland earlier this year.
The on-going championships is being played with AIBA’s newly-introduced weight divisions—13 categories in men’s event while 12 in the women’s section.
Another highlight from the 32 bouts played on the opening day in women’s categories, was Maharashtra’s Mrunal Jadhav who blanked Rajasthan’s Anju 5-0 in the women’s 57kg to make her way into the last-8 stage. The fourth edition of Youth Men & Women National Championships will go on till July 23 while the third edition of Junior Boys National Championships and the fourth edition of Junior Girls National Championships are scheduled from July 26 to 31.
The tournament will act as the selection tournament as the boxers will be selected for the 2021 ASBC Youth & Junior Boxing Championships which is slated to take place in Dubai from August 17-31.