Hyderabad: Day two of the 59th Sahara Men’s National Boxing Championship presented by the Monnet Ispat and Energy Limited and the action heated up with the competition moving into the second phase of the preliminaries, the round of 16.
In the light fly weight division Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Amandeep Singh of the Railways and 2009 Asian Boxing Championship gold medallist Nanao Singh of the Services set the canvas on fire with lightening fast moves. The two boxers notched up similar victories, with the referee stopping the contest in each case.
The duo blazed past their respective opponents in fine fashion to move into the pre quarter-final stage of the tournament. Amandeep needed less than a round to beat Mohd Khaja Hussain of Tamil Nadu; he was leading 8 nil when the referee decided to spare Hussain of any further agony and hand the victory to Amandeep. V Zosangpuia of Mizoram suffered a similar fate with Nanao displaying his mastery of the craft.
The nimble footed Manipur boxer was at his sublime best as he trounced Zosangpuia with consummate ease. Rookie boxer K Sagar of the host state on the other hand was at the receiving end of things against Sangkar Singh Thapa of Meghalaya. The 18 year old, playing his first senior national was no match to the superior power play and tactics of Thapa, who won with a round to spare.
The fly weight division witnessed the bout of the day as Gaurav Bidhuri of Delhi locked horns with Sunil Kumar of the Railways. With both the boxers evenly matched, what ensued, with the sound of the bell, was an action packed combat that brought the afternoon crowd at the LB stadium in Hyderabad to life.
Gaurav took the early advantage and put Sunil on the back foot, with his accurate hooks and jabs. After the first three minutes of play the Delhi boxer had a three point lead. The 19 year old continued to pull through against some solid attacking by Sunil and by the end of the second round he had increased his overall lead to 4 points (8-4). In the final round Sunil came back strongly with some hard hitting combinations to give Bidhuri a run for his money.
But the Delhi lad was up to the task and did not relinquish his lead, the round ended with both the boxers scoring 4 points apiece. Bidhuri took the overall victory with a score of 12-8. Services boxer Madal Lal had an easy day at office registering a straightforward victory over Chain Singh of Rajasthan.
Lal, a silver medallist at the 2011 Tammer International Boxing Tournament in Finland, led from the start to finish beating Singh with a massive margin. 34thNational Games silver medallist Santosh Harijan also stormed past Shri Kant Yadav of Uttar Pradesh to make his place in the round of 16.
By Indian Sports News Network
