Patiala: Services Sports Control Board emerged as the front runners at the 45th Junior Men National Boxing Championship with a scintillating performance in the quarter-final round of the tournament.

The defending champions continued to steam roll their opposition on Tuesday (15 May 2012), in the penultimate round as well. Off the eight boxers that made to semi-finals six advanced to the final stage of the championship. Last year’s runner up Haryana were a distant second with three of their pugilists contributing to the final line up.

In the light fly weight division, services boxer and reigning Junior National Champion PL Prasad continued his winning streak drubbing Chandigarh lad Anand without much trouble. Prasad, a quarter-finalist at the 2011 Junior World Championships, dominated proceedings from the start to finish with his strong all round game. The 16 year old cemented his place in the finals with a comprehensive 13:5 win on points. Andhra boxers K Sagar who has been in sublime form throughout the tournament didn’t even have to break a sweat in his semi-final bout.

The 2011 Youth National silver medallist took less than two minutes to get rid of Vaishnav DH of Kerala. Prasad and Sagar have shown tremendous technique and talent to have made it to the finals and all indications are for a scintillating contest when the two boxer clash for title on Wednesday (16 May 2012).

The summit clash in the fly weight division will witness another Services boxer Dheeraj Singh face off against A. Silambarasan of Tamil Nadu. Dheeraj, a 2009 Sub-Junior National Championship gold medallist overpowered Y Venkataramana of Karnataka in a one-sided contest to make his place in the finals, whereas Silambarasan was involved in a hefty battle with Harish Kumar of Orissa. The Tamil Nadu boxer was down a one point deficit after the opening two minutes of play. But a riveting performance in the second round – that saw him score 11 points as opposed to his opponents 4 – helped the 2011 silver medallist at the Junior Nationals sail past Kumar with a score of 15:11.

In the light welter weight class, reigning Youth National Champion Deepak Tanwar also of the Services team completely outclassed Zora Singh of Punjab to advance to the final round of the championship. He was leading 6:1 in the second round when the referee decided to stop the contest and handed the victory to the Services boxer. Tanwar has also featured on the senior tour and bagged the silver medal at the V Super Cup in Mumbai last year. He will now take on Akash Kumar of UP in the finals, who upstaged reigning Delhi State Champion Dinesh in what was a hard fought contest. 

Reigning junior national champion in the middle weight Sandeep Sharma of SSCB continued his defence of the title with a victory over Delhi Junior State Champion Sanjeev Tokas. He was leading 5 nil in the first round when Tokas had to retire due to an injury.  Sharma will now have to contest with former Junior National Champion Kailash Gill of Chandigarh in title clash. Gill hammered Gurvinder Pal Singh of Punjab to secure his spot in the finals.

Services boxers made it to the final round of the light heavy weight and the heavy weight category as well.  Silver medallist at the Youth Nationals last year, Abhishek Beniwal trounced Karmbir of Orissa in an exciting display of power and skill to make his place in the 81 kg final, whereas Deeapk thrashed Gurmukh Singh of Delhi to secure his spot in the ultimate battle of the 91 kg weight class.