CHENNAI: Asian Championship bronze medalist
Seema Poonia of RSPB blew away a young
Naganika Gonella to advance to the next stage of the second edition of the Elite
Women's National Boxing Championship held at the
National Boxing Academy inside the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Rohtak on Saturday.
2004 World Championship gold medalist
Aruna Mishra gave a walkover to Madhya Pradesh's Upasana Pandey.
Poonia started putting pressure on her inexperienced opponent from the word go and launched incessant attacks on Niharika to unsettle her.
But Gonella was not willing to leave the battle without any fight. She fought back and landed her jabs from close range but experienced Poonia showed her class and didn't allow the Telangana girl to score points at will.
At the end of the third round, Seema was comfortably home with a massive 5-0 victory to advance to the next round. She will now face Uttar Pradesh's Arpita Singh who dominated her opponent and set up a high-voltage clash against the recently crowned Asian Championship bronze medallist.
In another highly intense encounter, veteran boxer Bhagyabati Kachari of RSPB utilized her experience well in the ring as she overpowered Chandigarh's Himani. The initial phases of the first-round saw Bhagyabati land vicious punches which left her opponent with no answers to the onslaught. Into the second round, the referee halted the contest twice before declaring Himani not fit to fight anymore.