Savannah Marshall Olympic dream goes on after World Championship win over Pooja Rani

The Hartlepool boxer needs to reach the semi-final in Kazakhstan and today’s unanimous points success against the Indian boxer takes her into the quarters.

Marshall must now defeat China’s number four seed Qian Li in the last eight to book her place at the Rio games.

The 25-year-old, back at her majestic best when eliminating number six seed Elena Vystropova on Friday, was in great form again in the round of the last 16.

Rani was a busy opponent and after putting out the Ukraine representative in the previous stage, the southpaw was clearly a dangerous one too.

And Rani was out quickly, throwing wild swings but she missed with more than she landed in Astana.

All the good work came from the Headland ABC star, connecting with a sweet right and left right combination to get into her stride and another right confirmed her superiority.

Rani again came out with purpose, but Marshall was the classier act, scoring with two excellent, long lefts.

The southpaw factor made it untidy at times but Savannah rammed in a long, straight right and then a dazzling three-punch combination.

“Keep the gap” said GB coach Lee Pullen ahead of round three and while the first telling shot came from Rani, a big right, most of the Indian’s shots were taken on the shouylders or gloves of Marshall.

SAvannah, who had beaten Pooja on her way to success at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, maintained the edge and two good rights to the head helped her on the way to take round three too.

The fourth as a Marshall masterclass, landing long, straight punches to the head before rattling in several hooks to Rani’s body.

Turning it on, the Poolie landed at will to clinch the final session too.

The judges from Kazakhstan, Vietnam and Ecuador all scored it 40-36.