Boxing
IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship, Istanbul, Turkey
India’s Nikhat Zareen gave a dazzling performance to beat Thai Olympian Jutamas Jitpong 5-0 and become the fifth Indian woman to win a World title at Istanbul.
Nikhat, a former World junior champion and an Asian bronze medallist screamed out of joy when the announcer declared her the winner after the 52kg final bout in the World women’s championships.
Six-time champion M.C.Mary Kom, Sarita Devi, Jenny R.L. and Lekha K.C. are the other Indian women who have won the crown. India last won a World title when Mary had become a six-time champion in Delhi in 2018.
India finished the event with one gold and two bronze medals. Manisha Moun (57kg) and Parveen (63kg) got the bronze medals.
Badminton
Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu beat Korea’s Sim Yu Jin 21-16, 21-13 in Thailand Open to set up a quarterfinal clash with second-seeded Japanese shuttler Akane Yamaguchi.
The clash between World No. 7 Sindhu and World No. 1 Yamaguchi will be their 23rd meeting. Sindhu leads 13-9 in the head-to-head.
Kidambi Srikanth exited from the tournament after handing a walkover to Irish rival Nhat Nguyen in the second round.
In the women’s singles, Malvika Bansod lost 21-16 14-21 14-21 to Line Christopherson of Denmark in the second round.
The Indian mixed doubles pair of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto lost 19-21 20-22 against sixth seeded Malaysia combination of Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie.
India’s leading squash player Saurav Ghosal lost his pre-quarterfinal in straight games at the World Championships. The World No. 17 from India lost 2-11, 7-11, 3-11 to World No. 4 Mostafa Asal, the fast rising Egyptian.
Archery
The fifth-ranked Indian women’s side consisting of Ridhi Phor, Komalika Bari and Ankita Bhakat – beat Brazil 5-4 and Mexico 6-2 but lost to Korea 6-2 in the semifinals.
The trio defeated second-ranked Chinese Taipei – including World Cup bronze medallist Kuo Tzu Ying, Olympics medallist Lei Chien-Ying and Worlds medallist Chiu Yi-Ching – 6-2 (56-52, 54-51, 54-55, 55-54) to take the bronze medal.
India – comprising Tarundeep Rai, Neeraj Chauhan and Jayanta Talukdar – got a first round bye and beat Turkey 5-4 (shoot off 28-27) before suffering a 6-2 defeat against France in a recurve men’s team quarterfinal contest.
In compound men’s individual category, Mohan, ranked 42nd, got the better of Australians Patrick Coghlan 146-144 and Scott Brice 146-143, seventh-placed Slovakian Jozef Bosansky 149-145 and Korean Yang Jaewon 147-140 to reach the last-four. The Indian will face Austria’s Nico Wiener next.
Aman Saini lost to Denmark’s Mathias Fullerton 149-147 in the pre-quarterfinals. Third-placed Abhishek Verma was stunned in the second round, while Rajat Chauhan fell in the opening round.
In compound women’s individual competitions, Muskan Kirar exited in the pre-quarterfinals, losing to Korean Yunhee Kim 143-142.
Priya Gurjar and Avneet Kaur could not go beyond the second round. Raginee Marko lost in the first round.
Tennis
Asian U-16 tournament
Top seed Dhruv Sachdeva cut short the fine run of Levin Safoor Mydeen with a 6-2, 6-4 victory in the semifinals of the Asian under-16 tennis tournament at the Modern School courts, Barakhamba Road.
In the final, Dhruv will meet Akshat Dhull who beat second seed Jason David for the loss of four games.
In the girls section, the top two seeds Riya Sachdeva and Nainika Bendram set up a title clash.
Riya beat Aakruti Sonkusare while Nainika beat Saumrita Verma.
Saumrita went on to win the doubles title in partnership with Aditi Rawat, beating Nainika and Ishi Maheshwari 6-2, 6-3 in the final.
