Fancied boxers Waikai Shylah of New Zealand and England’s Chloe Watson met with first-round setbacks on the opening day of the AIBA Women’s Youth Boxing Championships at the Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor stadium in Guwahati on Sunday.
Shylah who trains in Australia but represents New Zealand started off her bout well, taking the fight to her Australian opponent Heibloem Indianna but somehow, failed to make much impact with her contact, be it the jab or the flurry of punches as Indianna moved around the ring fluently while slipping her jabs and combination, often connecting to Shylah’s midrift or her face in the opening round.
The second and third rounds followed the same pattern with Shylah connecting less in the third but making up for it in the fourth, occasionally using the roundhouse to catch her opponent off guard.
However, that proved not good enough to win her the bout as Indianna proved the better of the two, sneaking home by a whisker 3-2.
The Chloe-Nampai Kittiya bout turned interesting as the English girl’s hands moved like a rudder each time she moved into attack or while defending whenever the Thai girl turned aggressive. Chloe fired on all cylinders, unleashing a series of combos to her opponent’s solar plexus and face, but sadly quite a many of them missed its target as her taller shielded herself well, and waited for opportune moments to find her target. She targeted Chloe’s face more often as that was within striking distance since the English girl kept low to stay safe.
While many believed Chloe had won the fight for her aggressive display, it was the Thai girl that struck her opponent neatly to score her points, winning by a narrow margin, 3-2.
Ukraine’s Lisinska Anastasiia looked impressive in her lightfly weight bout against Germany’s Hoffman Charlotte. Anastasiaa boxed smartly, back-pedalling each time her opponent switched to attack mode only to pounce on her while she retrieved to catch her off guard. The ploy met with much success, be it the quick jab or the basic 1-2-3 combo. The two boxers tired by the end of the third, holding and slugging it out in short bursts but longer breaks. But the Ukraine boxer had done enough to storm to a convincing 4-1 win.
Results: Preliminaries
51kg (lightfly): Kim Chaewon (Kor) bt Thing Sanu Maya (Nep) 5-0 on pts; Abdraimova Zhansaya (Kaz) bt Wonyou Johanna (France) 3-2 on pts; Heibloem Indianna (Aus) bt Waikai Shylah (NZL) 5-0 on pts; Lisinska Anastasiia (Ukr) bt Hoffman Charlotte (Ger) 4-1 on pts; Nampai Kittiya (Thai) bt Watson Chloe (Eng) 3-2 on pts; Kumarage Watthe Imesha Sewwandi Fe bt Saracoglu Beyza (TUR) 5-0 on pts; Delgerkhangai Khongorzul (MGL) bt Stoeva Goryana (Bul) 5-0 on pts; Olchanova Ekaterina (Rus) bt Blaney Shauna (IRL) 5-0 on pts.Gaforova Madina (TJK) bt WANG Yan (CHN) 4-1 on pts.
