Indian sports wrap, May 1: Paris 2024 bound Nethra felicitated; four Indian boxers in semis of Youth Championships

BOXING

Four Indian boxers march into semifinals at ASBC Asian U-22 & Youth Boxing Championships 2024

Indian youth boxers Aryan, Yashwardhan Singh, Priyanshu and Sahil marched into semifinals with confident wins at the ASBC Asian U-22 & Youth Boxing Championships 2024 in Astana, Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

Aryan gave India a perfect start with a 5-0 unanimous decision win against Uzbekistan’s Juraev Shakarboy in the 51kg category. His win was followed by Yashwardhan (63.5kg), who made a remarkable comeback after going down in the first round to grab a 4-1 victory over Iran’s Mirahmadi Babaheidari.

Priyanshu (71kg) and Sahil (80kg), on the other hand, didn’t break sweat as they wrapped the bout with referee stop the contest (RSC) decision against Chinese Taipei’s Wu Yu En and Turkmenistan’s Yklymov Abdyrahma respectively.

Meanwhile, Jatin ended his campaign in the 57kg category with a 1-4 loss against Uzbekistan’s A Nodirbek.

The youth semifinals will be played on Friday.

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Aryan (92kg), Nisha (52kg), Akansha Phalaswal (70kg) and Rudrika (75kg) will be in action later today in their respective youth quarterfinals bouts.

Late on Tuesday, Jugnoo (86kg), Tammana (50kg) and Preeti (54kg) claimed victories to enter the U-22 semifinals.

On Thursday, eight U-22 pugilists will take the ring for their quarterfinals bouts, M Jadumani Singh (51kg), Ashish (54kg), Nikhil (57kg), Ajay Kumar (63.5kg), Ankush (71kg) and Dhruv Singh (80kg) in the men’s category while Guddi (48kg) and Poonam (57kg) in the women’s section.

The prestigious tournament has been witnessing high-voltage action with the presence of 390-plus boxers from more than 24 countries, fighting for the medals across 25 weight categories.

The finals for the youth and U-22 category will be played on May 6 and 7 respectively.

-Team Sportstar

Paris-bound Olympic sailor Nethra Kumanan felicitateted

SRM Institute of Science and Technology, on Wednesday, felicitated and awarded a cheque for INR 25 lakh to its student Nethra Kumanan, the Tamil Nadu sailor who’s qualified for the Paris Olympics.

Nethra Kumanan (c), along with her parents (on her right), received a cheque for 25 lakh rupees from the SRM IST Founder and Chancellor T.R. Paarivendhar (third from left) on Wednesday.
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This is the second time that the 26-year-old has qualified for the Olympics, after having participated in the Tokyo Olympics.

There was a small gathering of SRM IST sportspersons at the event. Speaking on the occasion, Nethra encouraged them to be inspired and not let anything stop them from pursuing their goals.

“I hope that all of you are inspired just to not let anything stop you from going after anything that you want to do,” she said.

Nethra also expressed her gratitude towards her college management for its support, help, and guidance throughout her journey, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She added that her college even allowed her to moss exams for important races, and take exams at convenient times.

Having missed her Engineering convocation due to such a sailing-related commitment, she was presented her degree at the event.

Nethra is currently pursuing MBA at SRM IST.

-S. Prasanna Venkatesan