Karaikkudi: Nanao Singh beat Amandeep Singh in the fly weight division On Day 3 of the 58th Sahara Senior Men’s National Boxing Championship being held in Karaikkudi, Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
Amandeep taking advantage of his height and reach got the better of Nanao in the first round (3:2). But Nanao who had defeated Amandeep at the National Games came around in the second round, playing a close game he got inside the defence of the railways boxer and levelled the score before taking the lead at 7:6. The final three minutes of play and it was all aggression from both the boxers. In the end though Nanao, the 2008 Youth Commonwealth Champion triumphed over his more experienced colleague with a score of 15:13. In the quarter-finals he will lock horns with local lad P Raghvan.
“I had defeated Amandeep at the National Games earlier in the year and therefore had a psychological advantage over him. My strategy was to negate the height advantage by playing a close game, it worked to great effect. I am happy with my performance and hope to carry on the form”, expressed an elated Nanao after the bout.
In the same weight category, upcoming Haryana boxer Devender continued his purple patch as he devoured Salman Anwar Shaikh of Maharashtra. The 19 year old used his aggressive play to excellent effect and beat Salman on points 21:11.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Paramjeet Samota opened his account at the championships with a bang. He had no trouble getting past the inexperience of Satvinder Singh from Uttarakhand. The burly 23 year old, was leading 3 nil in the first round when the referee decided to stop the contest. The quarter-finals will see Samota take on Rambol from Madhya Pradesh.
Reigning national champion in the fly weight division Madan Lal playing for the IBF team had an easy outing against Naveen Kumar of Orissa. The 20 year old boxer from Haryana was once again seen in exceptional touch as he hammered Kumar in a one-sided contest to make a place in the round of eight, where he will take on J Bhaskar from the services team. National Games silver medallist Santosh Harijan of Goa also registered an easy victory over Vikash Dahiya from Chandigarh. Dahiya had no answer to the heavy punches thrown by the 23 year old, who won with a score of 12:4 and secured his place in the quarter-finals, where he meets Sandeep Malik from Delhi.
Assamese wunderkind Shiva Thapa cemented his place in the quarter-finals of the bantam weight division, with an effort-less performance against Ankit Sharma from Madhya Pradesh. A gold medallist at the 2011 Belgrade Winner tournament, Thapa dominated the bout from the get go, never allowing Sharma to settle down. He led through the entire bout in the end winning it 12:3 on points. 2010 South Asian boxing champion Chhote Lal Yadav of the services team also made it through, outclassing Pappu Tamang from Sikkim. Thapa will fight against Amit Kumar from SPSB in the quarter-finals while Yadav will take on Neeraj Goyat from the IBF team.
