The Hindu : Sport / Boxing : Lekha in fine nick

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 12, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Boxing

Lekha in fine nick

Sports Reporter

Soniya enters pin weight final

— Photo: S. S. Kumar

In Control: K.C. Lekha (left) rode roughshod over Gurupreet Kaur in the women’s super heavyweight category.

CHENNAI: Life changed for the better for K.C. Lekha in 2001. Till then, the Kannur girl was an athlete taking part in discus throw and shot put events for Kerala.

Lekha turned to boxing in the first National women’s boxing championship six years ago in Chennai.

Since then she has won the National championship six times in succession.

The 11th SRM Federation Cup boxing championship at the SRM University campus at Kattankulathur near here saw the 25-year-old Sports Authority of India (Kollam) product trained by Chandralal dominate the women’s super heavy weight category on Wednesday.

She outclassed Gurpreet Kaur of Delhi in the semifinals with a flurry of punches.

Lekaha, a gold medalist in the 2006 World championship, raced away to a 17-2 lead midway in the first round, forcing the referee to halt the contest.

Meeting Lekha in the final will be N. Swapna Priya of RSPB, who outscored Jyoti of Haryana.

Soniya in final

Soniya of Tamil Nadu entered the pin weight category final defeating Pinki of Haryana 35-23.

Soniya, a Goan girl is making her debut for Tamil Nadu. Since Goa didn’t qualify for the Federation Cup, Soniya chose to represent Tamil Nadu.

N. Usha of RSPB had to bring forth her experience to beat a tough competitor in S. Ibemcha Devi of Manipur 12-7 in the semifinals of the light weight category.

Usha took a handy 9-5 lead with deft jabs and uppercuts in the first two rounds.

Ibemcha didn’t give up and she landed a lot of punches on Usha’s face in the third and final round, but those apparently did not impress the judges.

Usha, a silver medalist in the 2006 World championship in Delhi, earned points by landing blows effectively.

For the first time in three days, the open scoring system was used.

The results (semifinals):

Women: Pin weight: W. Jerina (Man) bt P. Nirosha (AP) RSC (OS); Soniya (TN) bt Pinki (Har) 35-23;

Fly: Chhoto Loura (RSPB) bt Ch. Lata Ranidevi (Man) 13-9; Sujata Rani (Asm) bt Kalpana Kocher (Har) 26-25; Bantam: Kanaka Laxmi (AP) bt CH. Bijeta (Man) 11-10; Sunita Yadav (RPSB) bt Urmil Rana (Har) 14-9.

Light: N. Usha (RSPB) bt S. Ibemcha Devi (Mah) 12-7; Neetu (Del) bt Jenifer Danial (Asm) RSC OS;

Welter: L. Radia (Man) bt Sivapriya (RSPB) RSC (OS); Kavita Goyat (Har) bt Nandini (TN) RSC OC;

Heavy: Kavita (Har) bt Prijiraj (Ker) RSC OS;

Super heavy: N. Swarnapriya (RSPB) bt Jyoti (Har) RSC (OS); K.C. Lekha (Ker) bt Gurpreet Kaur (Del) RSC (OS).

Men: Fly: Ghulam Ghouse (Jha) bt Vijay Kumar (Del) RSC (OS); Jonathan (SSCB) bt Sunil S Navgire (RSPB) 19-5.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport
News: ePaper | Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous | Engagements |
Advts: Classifieds | Jobs | Obituary | Updates: Breaking News |