Sarita Devi trounces Ambika, storms into finals

Chennai, July 12 (UNI) World Champion L Sarita Devi of Manipur stormed into the feather weight finals of the SRM-Federation Cup boxing championship here today with an easy win over B Ambika of Railways.

In the finals tomorrow, Saritha will take on Pavitra of Haryana, who had an emphatic win over Mamta Dahiya of Delhi, before referee stoped the contest in the first round itself.

The bout was good. But the referee stopped the contest midway in the first round after Sarita dealt a head blow to her rival. After Ambika took a mandatory count once, the referee intervened and awarded the bout in Sarita's favour, whose upper cuts and right jabs brooked no reply.

Manipur pugilist K Mandakini Chanu put up a brave fight before going down to Kangadurga of Andhra Pradesh on points. In the light fly weight semifinal, the contest between Mandakini and Kanagadurga was on an even keel before the Andhra lass came up with ''decisive blows'' in the third and final round to win the contest 12-8 on points.

Mandakini in fact had the edge in the first round landing a couple of upper cuts on her rival. With swift movements she managed to dodge her advancing rival and picked up points with fine jabs.

But Kangadurga came back well in the second and in the third to outsmart the Manipur lass to earn a berth in the final, where she will meet Kalpana of Railways. Kalpana also won on points against Ritu Ranga of Haryana.

The one bout that brought the sparse gathering to the feet was between G Parveen of Tamil Nadu and Sushma Kumari. The young Tamil Nadu girl held the edge in the attack initially, before losing out in the third round 15-17, when the referee stopped the contest.

But for these three bouts, the rest of the matches were totally one-sided forcing the referee to intervene and end the contest.

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