Elite Women’s National Boxing: Neeraj Phogat tops Simranjit to win title in 65kg category

Neeraj Phogat upsets Simranjit Kaur to win national title in 65kg category at Elite Women’s National Championships.

Neeraj Phogat registered a narrow 4-3 win against Simranjit Kaur to be crowned the national champion in the 65kg category in the 8th Elite Women’s National Championships at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex here on Thursday in the only major upset of the tournament even as the other title bouts played out on predictable lines.

Haryana’s Neeraj, who had been impressive through the competition, pushed the 2018 World Championships medalist hard and despite Simranjit bringing all her experience into play, edged ahead for the split victory in a weight category two steps above their previous one. Interestingly, while Simranjit had made the cut for Tokyo Olympics in the 57kg, Neeraj, one of the brightest prospects in the same category back then, was hit with a four-year doping ban in December 2019 to miss out.

The 57kg, meanwhile, saw the continued dominance of Services’ Jaismine Lamboriya who extended her unbeaten streak with a 5-0 win against Priya to clinch the title. The other Services boxer, Sakshi, was hardly tested with the referee stopping the contest in the first round itself to take the 54kg title.

Other favourites too won their respective finales with reigning champion Minakshi thrashing Yasika Rai of Sikkim 5-0 in the 48kg, Anamika becoming one of the four champions from Railways with a unanimous win against Tamanna in the 51kg and Sonia Lather defeating Sanju 4-1 in the 60kg. In the absence of Lovlina Borgohain, Muskan took the 75kg title with yet another Round 1 RSC win against Anjali.

The results (finals): 48kg: Minakshi (AIP) bt Yasika Rai (Sik) 5-0; 51kg: Anamika (RSPB) bt Tamanna (Har) 5-0; 54kg: Sakshi (SSCB) bt Abha Singh (AIP) RSC Rd 1; 57kg: Jaismine (SSCB) bt Priya (Har) 5-0; 60kg: Sonia Lather (RSPB) bt Sanju (AIP) 4-1; 65kg: Neeraj Phogat (Har) bt Simranjit Kaur (Pun) 4-3; 70kg: Sanamacha Chanu (RSPB) bt Sneh (Har) 5-2; 75kg: Muskan (RSPB) bt Anjali (Pun) RSC Rd 1; 80kg: Pooja Rani (Har) bt Lalfakmaxi Ralte (AIP) 4-3; 80+kg: Nupur (RSPB) bt Kiran (AIP) 5-0.