India claim 4 gold at AIBA Women's Youth Worlds

Four Indian boxers were on Saturday crowned champions in the AIBA Women's Youth and Junior World Championships in Antalya, Turkey with convincing victories against their opponents in the finals of their respective weight categories.

Sarjubala Devi (48kg), Minu Basumatary (64kg) in the Youth Championship and Lalenkawli (46kg) and Nikhat Zareen (50kg) in the Junior Championships won a gold each in the inaugural edition of the tournament.

Sarjubala opened the proceedings in the light fly weight category in the youth section against Svetlana Dmitrieva of Russia and the 2010 National Youth gold medallist was her usual dominating self as she hammered her Russian opponent in a one-sided affair.

With the help of some exquisite combination punches, Sarjubala amassed a huge 15:6 lead in the first round and kept building on it to claim her maiden international gold with a 37:21 victory.

In the summit clash of the light welter weight division, Minu, a silver medallist at National Youth Championship last year, fought with an aggressive intent as a part of a well devised strategy against Turkish Elif Kayan.

The approach seemed to pay dividends as the 17-year-old Indian never allowed her Turkish opponent to settle down in four round. In the end, Minu won 26:14 on points to with the gold medal.

In the first final of the Junior Championship, Lalenkawli took on Neriman Istik also of Turkey in the battle for light pin weight title. The reigning Junior National champion carried her good form in the tournament into the finals as well.

Lalenkawli led 16:9 after two rounds before she grabbed the gold with a 30:12 victory.

In the fly weight category final, Nikhat was up against Ulku Demir, another Turkish boxer and a strong medal contender.

But the Indian, Junior National gold medallist, completely outclassed Demir in a lopsided contest. After three rounds of relentless attacking, Nikhat won the bout 27:16 to take the yellow metal.

Lalfakzuali in the light bantamweight category of the Junior Championships, however, had to face defeat in the final as she went down fighting to Vuong Thi Vy of Vietnam.

In a close bout, the 14-year-old Indian lost to the Vietnamese boxer 12:12 on individual score to settle for a silver medal.

Pwilao Basumatary (54kg) and Poonam Chahal (60kg), who lost their semi-finals bouts, settled for a bronze medal each.

Basumatary went down to Thi Duyen Luu of Vietnam 20:13 while Poonam lost to Patrica Berghult of Sweden 17:3.