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Indian boxers Nikhat Zareen and Manisha continued their brilliant forms to secure themselves medals at the 12th edition of the IBA Women's World Boxing Championships after registering contrasting wins in their respective quarter-finals in Istanbul on Monday.
Confirming their first World Championships medals with a place in the semi-finals, Nikhat clinched a dominating 5-0 win against England's Charley-Sian Taylor Davison while Manisha got the better of Mongolia's Namuun Monkhor in the hard-fought 57kg quarter-final by a 4-1 margin. The 25-year-old boxer from Telangana once again showed her technical supremacy to hand the country its first medal at this year's tournament with an impressive victory in the 52kg quarter-final. Nikhat's aggressive intent and clean attack left no chance for Davison as the Indian looked in complete control throughout the bout. Nikhat will now take on Caroline De Almeida of Brazil in the semi-finals. De Almeida thrashed the 2018 Commonwealth Games silver Ireland's Carly McNaul of Ireland by unanimous decision. While Manisha will take on Italy's Irma Testa, who defeated Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova 4-1 in another quarter-final. On the other hand, another Indian pugilist Nitu fell just short of securing a medal in her debut appearance at the World Championships as she tried her all against the reigning Asian Champion Alua Balkibekova of Kazakhstan but went down fighting in a closely fought 48kg quarter-final. It was a more physical bout where the boxers took on each other aggressively and landed a flurry of punches but Balkibekova's clean striking put her ahead. Later tonight, country's five more boxers, including debutants Anamika (50kg), Jaismine (60kg) and Parveen (63kg), will look to secure themselves medals at the prestigious event which has been witnessing exciting action in the presence of 310 boxers of 73 countries from across the world. Pooja Rani (81kg) and Nandini (+81kg) are the other boxers who will fight for place in the semi-finals in their respective categories. Semi-final matches will take place on Wednesday while the finals will be played on Thursday and Friday. In the last edition of the tournament, held in Russia in 2019, Indian boxers clinched one silver and three bronze medals. India have won 36 medals, including nine gold, eight silver and 19 bronze, in the 11 editions of the tournament so far--third highest after Russia (60) and China (50). (ANI)
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