7 Dec : National youth champion Monica Saun of Punjab proved her mettle as a promising talent as she upset India senior international pugilist Neetu Chahal of Haryana in the 11th Women National Boxing Championships in Thrissur on Tuesday.
Monica defeated Chahal, who was part of the Indian Squad at the World Women’s Boxing Championships at Barbados in September, 1-0 on points in the 60kg weight category.
Eighteen year-old Monica hails from Uttaranchal but is presently in the SAI Sports Hostel in Patiala.In the 57kg weight category, Rinky Singh (AP) beat former national champion Kamla Bisht (AIP) on judegs’ decision. Both the boxers had an identical score of 3-3 after the completion of the bout.
The accepted and individual scores were equal and then the jury raised the white flag and directed the judges to break the tie. The decision of the judges went in favour of Kamala Bisht.
In another 60 kg category bout, the boxing fraternity witnessed a return of the former World Championship bronze medallist Chottu Loura (RSPB). She defeated Adyty Raut of Madhya Pradesh.
Chottu Loura, basically a counter boxer, exhibited her favourite skills by sidestepping and countering with her right straights to win comfortably.
The local crowd had a chance to cheer when Kerala boxer Jiji Varghese knocked out S Kaliarasi of Tamil Nadu in 60kg.
Varghese went all out in the first round with straight left-right combinations landing clearly on the target. The referee was forced to give three mandatory counts and stopped the bout in favour of Varghese.