Minakshi Hooda and Nikhat Zareen enter semi finals of national boxing championships

India’s leading boxers including Minakshi Hooda, Nikhat Zareen, Hitesh Gulia and Pawan Bartwal stormed into the semi-finals of the Elite National Boxing Championships in Greater Noida with commanding wins, highlighting their dominance across men’s and women’s categories

Hyderabad: Country’s top boxers including world champion Minakshi Hooda, two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen, World Boxing Cup gold medallist Hitesh Gulia and others sailed into the semi-finals of the Elite Men and Women National Boxing Championships with comfortable wins at Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, on Thursday.

Minakshi (women’s 45-48kg) of All India Police defeated Kashish Mehta of Punjab 5:0, while Nikhat (48-51kg) blanked Manipur’s Lanchenbee Chanu Tongbram by an identical margin.

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In the men’s 65-70kg quarterfinals, Hitesh defeated Punjab’s Tejaswi 5:0 to advance to the semi-finals. World Boxing Cup Finals silver medallist Pawan Bartwal (men’s 50-55kg), Jadumani Singh (50-55kg) and Sachin (55-60kg) all earned unanimous decisions in their quarterfinal bouts.

Pawan defeated Tyson of Arunachal Pradesh, Jadumani overcame Punjab’s Nikhil and Sachin beat Uttar Pradesh’s Karan. In the women’s 51-54kg quarterfinals, Preeti defeated Harmeet Kaur Virk of Punjab 5:0, while Sakshi got the better of Poonam of RSPB 4:1.