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India's pugilist Nandini (+81kg) crashed in the semi-final to settle with the bronze medal in the 73rd Strandja Memorial Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. She went down to former world champion Lazzat Kungeibayeva of Kazakhstan with a 0-5 scoreline.
With this, the former youth world champion Nikhat Zareen (52kg) and Nitu (48kg) are the only Indians left in fray after they advanced to the finals of their respective weight categories.
While the 25-year-old Zareen got the better of Tokyo Olympics and world championship silver-medallist Buse Naz Cakiroglu, Nitu pummelled her Ukrainian rival Hanna Okhota, who threw in the towel at the end of the second round in bouts held last evening.
The two will fight their final bouts on Sunday.
Nitu will be pitted against Italy's Erika Prisciandaro, a former youth world championship bronze-medallist while Zareen will square off against Ukraine's Tetiana Kob, a three-time European Championships medallist, including a gold back in 2009. Zareen had won a gold medal at the Strandja Memorial's 2019 edition.
Earlier, the youth world champion Arundhati Choudhary (70kg) and Parveen (63kg) bowed out after losing closely-contested quarterfinal bouts.
Choudhary, the reigning national champion, was out-witted 1-4 by reigning Olympic champion Busenaz Surmeneli of Turkey, while Parveen went down 2-3 to Russia's Nataliya Sychugova in the last-eight stage on Thursday.
Surmeneli, who is also a world champion, had beaten India's Lovlina Borgohain in the Olympic semifinals last year in Tokyo.
The tournament features over 450 boxers from 36 countries, including traditional powerhouses such as Kazakhstan, Italy, Russia, France and Ukraine, where Russia launched a military operation on Thursday despite global appeal for restraint.
A 17-member Indian contingent, including seven men and 10 women, was sent to participate in the tournament and has managed to improve the medal count by one so far.
India won two medals in the last edition with Deepak Kumar and Naveen Boora securing silver and bronze respectively.
The performance of the men's squad was underwhelming this time with none of the seven in fray managing to enter the medal rounds.
In all, the tournament featured over 450 boxers from 36 countries, including traditional powerhouses such as Kazakhstan, Italy, Russia, France and Ukraine, where Russia launched a military operation on Thursday despite global appeal for restraint.
