74th Strandja Memorial International Boxing Tournament: Anamika, Kalaivani sail into semis

India's female pugilists Anamika and S.Kalavani made their way into the semi-finals of the ongoing 74th Strandja Memorial International Boxing Tournament in Sofia on Friday.

Anamika (50kg) faced Brazil's Caroline de Almeida in the quarter-final and started the bout with an aggressive approach. She displayed swift movement and landed a flurry of punches on her opponent to gain an early lead in the first round. She used the same approach in the second round and didn't give any opening to the opponent on her way to registering a comfortable 5-0 win.

S.Kalavani also looked confident and dominated the proceedings against Florencia Lopez of Argentina from the start of the match. The Indian boxer attacked relentlessly and took an early lead. Lopez tried to fight back in the last round but Kalavani displayed solid defence and counter-attacked enroute her 4-1 win.

Meanwhile, three female pugilists bowed out of the tournament as Jyoti, Vinakshi and Simranjit lost their respective quarter-final bouts.

Jyoti (52 kg) went down 2-3 to Romane Moulai of France in a tough bout, while Vinakshi (57kg) lost 1-4 to USA's Alyssa Mendoza. Brazil's Beatriz Ferreira beat Simranjit 4-1 in the women's 60kg division.

Later tonight, three boxers will be in action in quarters. Bishwamitra (51 kg) will take on Jordan Roach USA, while Mahi Lamba will face the Dutch pugilist Keona Sam-Sin in the women's 63 kg category.

Two-time Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Hussamuddin (57kg) will square off against Artur Bazayan of Armenia.

Late on Thursday night, two Indian male pugilists made their way into the semi-finals of the tournament.

The 2021 World Youth Champion Sachin notched up a 4-1 win against Muzafarov Shakhzod of Uzbekistan in the 54kg category. 2022 National champion Govind Kumar Sahani (48kg) outclassed the two-time Asian champion Nodrijon Mirzakhmedov of Uzbekistan 5-0.

On the other hand, Akash (67kg) bowed out of the tournament after facing a 0-5 defeat against Denmark's Sebastian Terteryan. Narender lost 1-4 to Mahammad Abdullayev of Azerbaijan in the 92+kg category.

( With inputs from ANI )

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