North Zone bags 2nd inter-zonal women's national boxing championship

GUNTUR: Day 4 and it was time for final action at the 2nd Inter-zonal Women's National Boxing Championship. The premise of the NTR Stadium, Guntur in Andhra Pradesh was abuzz with an excited crowd waiting to see some enthralling battles as the players took to the rings in hope of being crowned champions.
First up, in the light fly weight category, P Nirosha of the South Zone took on Neetu representing the North Zone.Nirosha who had made her way to the finals drubbing former youth national champion and a bronze medalist at the 34th National Games, A Punyavathi, looked out of sorts. The girl from Haryana proved to be handful for Nirosha. Neetu went on to take the gold with a comprehensive victory on points 5:2.
In the fly weight division Dolly Singh made the best of home support as she once again made her dominance felt in the ring with a scintillating performance. A bronze medalist at 34th National Games, Dolly pulverized Richa Sharma of the centre zone with a huge margin, winning on points 10 nil. "I entered the ring optimistic of a good showing and adopted an aggressive approach. My strategy paid off winning me the gold", expressed an extremely elated Dolly after the bout.
In the light weight class (60kg) it was a one sided affair when Meenakshi from North Zone, a silver medalist at the 5th Senior Women North India Boxing Championships beat Renu Jaiswal of the Center Zone on points 5:0 to take the gold.
In another power packed performance, reigning national champion Aruna Mishra representing East Zone, crushed Mehak from Haryana, in just 15 seconds, to take the yellow metal in the light welter weight category. The former world champion gave her opponent no chance, with a flurry of punches she went on to take a 5 nil lead, before the referee intervened to stop the fight. "I had a very positive mind frame going into the bout and was sure of a gold medal performance", said a confident Aruna.
The middle weight category saw Jagriti from the Center Zone lock horns with P Lakshmi Latha of Andhra. Jagriti, a bronze medal winner at the 11th National Championships outclassed her opponent completely with a combination of left and right jabs. She won the gold with a 6:0 win.
The 2nd edition of the tournament witnessed North Zone display spectacular talent and claim the title with 4 golds, 1 silver and a bronze. Center Zone claimed the second spot with 2 golds, 5 silvers while Andhra finished third claiming 2 golds, 1 silver and 4 bronze medals. The tournament has been successful in providing emerging boxers an excellent platform to improve their level of performance. It also plays an important role in short listing boxers for the Indian Camp.