NEW DELHI: Youth world champion Arundhati Choudhary (70kg) and Parveen (63kg) bowed out of the 73rd Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament after losing closely-contested quarterfinal bouts in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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.
"Arundhati fought hard but couldn't get the desired result. Parveen brought her best in the final round but by that time it was a bit late," India women's team coach Bhaskar Bhatt told PTI from Sofia over phone.
Earlier, former junior world champion Nikhat Zareen (52kg) and Nitu (48kg) entered the semifinals to assure India of two more medals. On Tuesday, Nandini (+81kg) confirmed the first medal for the country by making the last-four stage.
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 has been underwhelming this time with none of them managing to enter the medal rounds.
