Istanbul (Turkey), May 14 Indian boxers continued their impressive run at the 12th IBA Women's World Boxing Championships here as the 2017 Youth World Champion Nitu (48kg) and 2019 Asian Championships bronze medallist Manisha (57kg) cruised into the quarter-finals after registering contrasting wins on Saturday.
Nitu, who won the gold medal at Strandja Memorial Boxing Championship in Sofia this year, was facing Spain's Lopez Del Arbol in the pre-quarterfinal bout. The boxer from Bhiwani dominated the proceedings right from the beginning and showed relentless energy, speed and footwork to land precise punches.
Nitu upped the ante in the next two rounds and carried on with her attacking approach without giving any chance to her opponent and won the bout convincingly by 5-0.
Her next opponent will be Kazakhstan's Alua Balkibekova in the quarter-final on Monday.
Manisha (57kg) prevailed 4-1 over Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria in a hard-fought bout that saw both the boxers trade punches throughout the three rounds. Manisha held her nerve and secured the verdict of the judges in her favour in the end.
She will next face a tough challenge from Youth World bronze medallist Namuun Monkhor of Mongolia in the quarter-final on Monday.
On Sunday, six Indian boxers including Nikhat Zareen will be in action in the round-of-16 bouts.
Nikhat (52kg) and Shiksha (54kg) will next face Mongolia's Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg and Youth Asian bronze medallist Yesugen Oyuntsetseg respectively whereas Parveen will take on former Youth Olympic champion Jajaira Gonzalez of the USA.
Anamika (50kg) will square off against World Championships bronze medallist Kristy Lee Harris of Australia while Jaismine (60kg) will be up against Australia's Angela Harries.
Meanwhile, 2017 Youth World Champion Ankushita (66kg) will make her elite World Championships debut against Poland's Aneta Rygielska.
This year's event, which marks the 20th anniversary of the IBA Women's World Championships, will be played till May 20.
In the last edition of the tournament, held in Russia in 2019, Indian boxers secured one silver and three bronze medals.
Indian boxers have won 36 medals, including nine gold, eight silver, and 19 bronze, in the 11 previous editions of the tournament, which is the third-highest after Russia (60) and China (50).
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