Samota delivers a knockout performance

Karaikkudi: Commonwealth Games gold medallist Paramjeet Samota of Railways continued his winning streak delivering a knock-out performance as he overpowered Rambol of Madhya Pradesh to move into the semi-finals of the super heavy weight category in the Sahara 58th Senior Men’s National Boxing Championship here on Thursday.


Both the boxers started aggressively in the opening round, but with the beginning of the second, Samota shifted into top gear and threw some hefty blow to which his opponent had no answer. He finally pulled the rug from under Rambol’s feet with a blistering upper cut, sending a strong message to his ‘round of four’ opponent Fateh Singh of Jharkhand.

“It was a great bout form me, everything I tried came off and yielded results. I am happy with my performance and hope to carry on the form,” the confident Samota stated after his bout.

In the light fly weight division 2009 Asian Championship, silver medallist and services boxer Nanao Singh also continued his winning spree as he drubbed P Raghvan of Tamil Nadu. The National Games gold medallist dominated the proceedings from the get go; leading throughout the bout, he sailed into the next round of the championship winning with a margin of 9 points (14:5). He now takes on Bahadur Singh Rana of Uttarakhand.

But it was curtains for National Games silver medallist Santosh Harijan. The Goan boxer, who won a gold medal in Indonesian and a bronze in Kazakhstan earlier in the year, came up short against Sandeep Malik of Delhi. In what was a see-saw battle Sandeep triumphed over his more experienced opponent on points with a score of 7:6.

In the bantam weight class, promising young boxer from Assam, Shiva Thapa ousted S Santosh Singh of Manipur in an outstanding performance. Thapa, a gold medallist at the ‘2011 Belgrade Winner’ tournament, amassed a three point lead in the opening round and held on to the advantage winning the bout with a score of 9:5 in the end. In the next round he will take on National Games bronze medallist V Durga Rao of Karnataka. Rao defeated Amit Kumar Shukla of SPSB to set up the clash.

In the same weight category, 2010 South Asian boxing champion Chhote Lal Yadav of the services team saw off a stiff challenge from Neeraj Goyat playing for the IBF team. Yadav, who was down a one point deficit after the first round of play (3:4), made a stunning recovery in the second winning 8 points as opposed Goyat’s 3. In the final round both the boxers went all out, but Yadav managed to hold onto the advantage and win the bout 17:13 on points. He will no lock horns with local lad Maniknandan V in the next round.