The Hindu : Sport / Boxing : Indian women win a silver, three bronze

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Sport

Sport - Boxing

Indian women win a silver, three bronze

Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI: A second-string Indian women's team produced a credible performance by winning one silver and three bronze medals at the Ahmet Comert boxing tournament in Istanbul, Turkey.

Making her international debut, S. Ibemcha Devi gave a boost to her confidence by winning three bouts before losing to World champion Tatyana Chalaya in the final of the 60kg category.

Ibemcha opened bravely and had a two-point lead over Tatyana in the second round before eventually losing 20-27 to settle for the silver medal.

On her way to the final, Ibemcha won all bouts through referee-stopped contests. She defeated Raslostina Vulcheva of Bulgaria in the first round, Shved Oksana of Ukraine in the quarterfinals, and Anat Idal of Israel in the semifinals.

V.K. Swapna, N. Usha and K.C. Lekha brought home the bronze medals.

Maiden medal

In the 46kg class, Swapna, the National silver medallist for last three years, won her first international medal. Being in the same weight category as the World champion M.C. Mery Kom, Swapna never got a chance to test herself at a bigger stage.

She opened her campaign beating World championship bronze medallist Svetlana Genevanona of Russia 28-25 in one of the best bouts of the championship. In the semifinals, she lost to Darya Aktop of Turkey 9-19.

In the 57kg category, Usha was outclassed by World champion Elena Karpacheva of Russia in the semifinal bout. She was down 15-0 when the referee stopped contest in the second round. In the first round, Usha defeated Samira Kebrit of Algeria 12-6 and then edged past Ingrid Egner of Norway 12-8 in the quarterfinals.

In the 80kg category, the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) sent Lekha, the first choice boxer, to give her some international exposure before the all-important World championship to be held in Hyderabad this November.

There were just four boxers in the fray, and as the Indians' luck would have it, the three others were the gold, silver and bronze medallists at the St. Petersburg World championship last year.

Lekha was paired against Selma Yaggi of Turkey and she did well before losing 21-16. World champion Galina Evanova won the title expectedly.

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