New Delhi: Defending champions Nikhat Zareen (50kg) and Neetu Ghaghans (48kg) stormed into the finals of the Women’s World Boxing Championships with emphatic victories in their final bouts here on Thursday. While Nikhat defeated Rio Olympics bronze medalist Ingrid Valencia of Colombia 5-0, Neetu got the better of Alua Balkibekova of Kazakhstan 5-2.
Nikhat, with his quickness and tactical acumen, defeated Valencia and continued to make strides towards defending his title. Earlier, the match between Neetu and Balkibekova was similar to last year’s quarterfinal. In this, Commonwealth Games champion Neetu and Balkibekova punched each other fiercely in the first round. However, the boxer from Kazakhstan was more dominant, winning the first round 3-2.
In the second round, however, Neetu came back strong and landed powerful ‘hooks’ and ‘jabs’. Both the boxers kept trying to pin each other down but Neetu was able to seal the round. The next three minutes were tense in which Neetu got the better of Balkibekova, prompting the match to be ‘reviewed’ and she was declared the winner.
