Chanu, Chahal get to winning start at Olympic qualifiers

Qinhuangdao, China: Mandakini Chanu (57 kgs) brought cheers to the Indian camp by comprehensively defeating Serbian Boxer Bojana Ranic in the opening bout of the 7thAIBA World Women Boxing Championships at Qinhuangdao, China on Friday.

Right from the word go, Mandakini went on the relentless attacking mode against the Serbian boxer who was physically taller and heftier. At the end of Round 1 the score was 10-3 in favour of India. During the second round, Mandakini stunned Bojana Ranic twice whereby the referee had to administer the standing count of eight on both occasions. Finally the Referee stopped the contest in Round 3 in favour of Mandakini. Mandakini will now play against World No.1 Seed Tiara Brown of USA on 14 May 2012.

In the 60 kgs, Neetu Chahal defeated Hungary’s European Union Champion Bianka Nagy on points 22:6. At the end of Round 1, Neetu was leading by 4:1 pts. Although Bianka was a very experienced boxer as she is the National Champion and member of the Hungarian National Team since 2006, it was Neetu attacking play which gave her the edge and the bout. Score at the end of Round 2 was 9:3 which increased to 17:5 by the end of Round 3 and finshed at 22:6 pts at the end of the bout. Neetu’s next opponent will be Marie de Jong of Netherlands who is World No.1 seed in the 69 kgs category against whom she will fight on 13 May 2012.

All the 3 Olympic weight categories preliminary bouts will be held on May 12. In the 51 kgs there are a total of 55 boxers participating and Mary Kom who has been seeded 7th in this weight has got a bye and will hence play against the winner of Japan and Greece on May 13.

In the 60 kgs weight category where there are a total of 58 boxers in the competition, Sarita Devi will play against Ayzanat Hajiyeva of Azerbaijan on 12 May 2012 in the evening session. In the 75 kgs weight category Pooja Rani will play against Claressa Shields of USA on 12 May 2012 in the afternoon session.