World Championships bronze medallist Manisha Moun and Jaismine Lamboria cruised to the 60kg semifinals with facile victories at the Women's National Boxing Championship here on Monday.
Representing Services, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Jaismine used her long reach to literally pummel Poonam Kaithwas of Maharashtra and notch up a Referee Stops Contest (RSC) win in the quarterfinal.
The talented southpaw made good use of her straight jabs to disorient her opponent. She then landed a deadly hook to force the first of two standing counts. Less than 20 seconds later, she landed a strong jab on Poonam to force a second count in round 1.
Jaismine continued to dictate terms for the remaining six minutes even as Poonam adopted a defensive approach.
When Poonam did attack, Jaismine cleverly evaded the punches by skilfully sidestepping.
She will take on Menka Devi of Himachal Pradesh, who defeated Tamil Nadu PS Girja by a 4-1 split verdict, in the semifinals.
Haryana's Manisha, who won the bronze medal in the 2022 Worlds, registered a 5-0 win over TC Lalremruati of Mizoram.
Having moved up a weight class for a shot at the Olympics, Manisha began on a tentative note but slowly found her groove as the seconds ticked. She danced around the ring, taking her time to pick out the perfect moment to land accurate punches.
She will take on another seasoned boxer in 2018 World Championship bronze medallist Simranjeet Kaur of Punjab in the lightweight semifinals.
The 60kg and 66kg weight class are the only two categories where Indian boxers are yet to secure a quota for the Paris Olympics. The top three boxers at the Nationals in these two categories will head to the national camp, where they will undergo assessment ahead of the next Olympic qualifiers in February.
Arundhati Chaudhary, the 2021 World Youth champion, made it two out of two for Services as she also made her way to the semifinals in 66kg weight class.
Arundhati used her height advantage, landing punches at will while her opponent Komalpreet Kaur of Punjab resorted to clinching.
Arundhati did not leave any opportunity to attack to eventually win by a 5-0 unanimous verdict.
Reigning world champion Saweety Boora too advanced to the 81kg semifinals with a RSC win.
