Istanbul: Indian boxers Nikhat Zareen, Manisha, and Parveen continued their brilliant run to confirm three medals for the country at the 12th IBA Women's World Boxing Championships by entering the semifinals here on Monday.
Nikhat Zareen handed India the first medal by clinching a dominating 5-0 win against England's Charley-Sian Taylor Davison while Manisha got the better of Mongolia's Namuun Monkhor in the hard-fought 57kg quarterfinal by a 4-1 margin.
The 25-year-old boxer from Telangana once again showed her technical supremacy to hand the country its first medal at this year's tournament with an impressive victory in the 52kg quarterfinal. Nikhat's aggressive intent and the clean attack left no chance for Davison as the Indian looked in complete control throughout the bout.
Nikhat will now take on Caroline De Almeida of Brazil in the semifinals. De Almeida thrashed the 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Ireland's Carly McNaul by unanimous decision.
Manisha will take on Italy's Irma Testa, who defeated Uz'ekistan's Sitora Turdibekova in another quarterfinal.
Later, Parveen also made her way into the 63kg semifinals by thrashing Shoira Zulkaynarova of Tajikistan 5-0 and added a third medal to India's tally. Parveen will be up against Ireland's Amy Broadhurst in the semifinal.
However, it was heartbreak for the country's five pugilists - Nitu (48kg), Pooja Rani (81kg), Anamika (50kg), Jaismine (60kg) and Nandini (+81 kg) suffered defeats in their respective last-eight bouts.
Two-time Asian champion Pooja suffered a close 2-3 defeat to Australia's Jessica Bagley while Nitu and Anamika too fell short of securing medals on her debut appearance at the World Championships after enduring 2-3 and 0-5 losses respectively against the reigning Asian champion Alua Balkibekova of Kazakhstan and Rio Olympic bronze medallist Ingrit Valencia 0f Colombia.
Jaismine too went down fighting against the former World Championships bronze medallist Rashida Ellis of USA 1-4.
Nandini, who had received a first round bye, was handed a 0-5 loss by Morocco's Khadija Mardiin.
Semifinal bouts will take place on Wednesday while the finals will be played on Thursday and Friday.
In the last edition of the tournament, held in Russia in 2019, Indian boxers clinched one silver and three bronze medals. India have won 36 medals, including nine gold, eight silver and 19 bronze, in the 11 editions of the tournament so far - the third-highest after Russia (60) and China (50).
