Lalenkawali, Pooja shine at Junior Women's National Championship

NEW DELHI: Inspired by MC Mary Kom's bronze winning performance at the London Olympics, a young brigade of women boxers were off to a flying start at the 8th Junior Women's National Boxing Championships presented by Monnet Ispat and Energy Limited being held in Patiala.
The eight edition of the tournament witnessed participation from 121 boxers from 23 State/Board teams.India's reigning Junior World Boxing Champion Lalenkawali of Mizoram continued her good form as she hammered Kalawati of Rajasthan in less than 2 minutes of play.
Lalenkawali, who won the gold medal at the recently concluded 'Golden Glove of Vojvodina' an international youth women's boxing tournament in Serbia, was leading 7-0 in the first round when the referee decided to stop the contest and award her the win. The 17-year-old will now take on Karnataka's Rajesh Narwal who beat Andhra boxer J Deepthi in a hard fought quarterfinal bout.
The other half of the draw in the light fly weight division saw two-time former Junior National Champion Pooja Tokas storm past Jyoti Thakur of Bihar (24-10) to advance into the round of four.
The 2011 Youth World Championship bronze medallist Poonam was also in top form as she beat Sanjaobi Chanu of Manipur in the light welter weight round of eight. After just two rounds of action the referee had to intervene and stop the bout, declaring the Haryana girl as the winner. In the next round she will go up against Sumol Doley of Assam for a place in the finals.
In the fly weight class, Neelam Saini of Haryana drubbed H Dayarani Devi of Manipur in one-sided contest. Saini, a bronze medallist at 'Golden Glove of Vojvodina' in Serbia, led from the start and never allowed the Manipur boxer to settle. She won 22-8 on points.
In the semifinal, Saini will lock horns with G Sujatha of Andhra Pradesh. Sujatha, the 2010 Junior National Champion, had to dig deep against Sruthimol Sasi of Kerala to book her semifinal berth. She came back from a one point deficit (8-7) after the opening round to take the lead and finally win the bout 20-17 on points.
Rupinder Kaur of Punjab put in a sterling performance against Lakhyamoni Gogoi of Assam in the quarterfinals of the light weight category. Rupinder beat Gogoi 16-9. In the semi's she will face Shaily Singh of Uttar Pradesh, who came back from behind to beat Bhawna from Haryana.