Meenakshi, Pooja, Hitesh lead charge as eight Indians set to fight for gold at World Boxing Cup

Meenakshi (women's 48kg), Sakshi (women's 54kg), Pooja Rani (women's 80kg), Jaismine (women's 57kg), Hitesh Gulia (men's 70kg), Jugnoo (men's 85kg), Abhinash Jamwal (men's 65kg) registered convincing victories to keep the Indian contingent on course to register their best ever performance in the World Boxing Cup.

Sanju (women's 60kg), Nikhil Dubey (men's 75kg) and Narender (men's 90+ kg) bagged the bronze medal after going down in the semi-finals, thereby taking India's overall medal tally to 11. India had clinched a total of six medals in the first leg of the World Boxing Cup in Brazil earlier this year, with only the men's boxers competing in that leg.

This is the first time that the women pugilists have got an opportunity to showcase their skills on the World Boxing Cup stage and they have grabbed it with both hands.

Meenakshi started India's march on Saturday with an aggressive display to beat Nurselen Yalgettekin of Turkey 5:0 in the 48kg semi-final. Sakshi then displayed her prowess, landing punches regularly to dominate Feruza Kazakova of Uzbekistan and reached the final of the 54kg weight category by an identical margin.

Olympian Pooja Rani then staved off the late charge of Elif Guneri of Turkey in the 80kg category to reach the final with a 3:2 verdict. Jaismine then completed the lineup with a unanimous decision over Kazakhstan's Aidana Zabynbekova.

Brazil leg gold medallist Hitesh Gulia looked in trouble after the first round against France's Makan Traore but the 20-year-old landed quite a few punches in the second round to close the gap and then wrapped up the semi-final with yet another convincing display in the third and final round to reach the final.

Jugnoo then added to the celebratory mood in the Indian camp with a 5:0 thumping of England's Teagn Scott, and Abhinash Jamwal, then earned a 5:0 win over local hope Yertugan Zeinullinov. (ANI)