Karaikkudi: Super heavy weight boxer Paramjeet Samota of the Railways continued to pulverize his opposition in an exhibition of raw power as he marched into the finals of Sahara 58th Senior Men’s National Boxing Championship here on Friday.
The Commonwealth Champion was at his destructive best in the semi-finals, taking less than six minutes to get rid of the Fateh Singh of Jharkhand. He was leading 26:3 in the second round when the referee stopped the contest and awarded victory to Samota. Up against the inexperienced Satish Kumar of the services team in the finals, the burly 23-year-old looks all set to claim his fifth consecutive national title.
The bantam weight division witnessed a major upset in the form of Services boxer and 2010 South Asian boxing champion Chhote Lal Yadav. Yadav, fighting against Maniknandan V of Tamil Nadu, a gold medal winner at the 2010 Junior National Championship, was up two points after the first six minutes of play (2:1, 3:2). But the local lad made a stunning recover in the final round. With the help of some swift moves and combinations, Maniknandan made his opponent look dreary and perturbed. He scored seven points as opposed to Yadav’s three and went on to secure his place in the finals with a 10:8 victory. But the 17 year old will have his work cut out in the final as he would go up against Assamese wunderkind
Shiva Thapa, who cemented his place in the championship round with a 3:2 win over V Durga Rao of Karnataka. Olympian and World Series boxer for the Venkys Mumbai Fighters, Diwakar Prasad also cruised into the finals of the light weight class with an easy victory over Kulwinder of Kerela. The Railways boxer will lock horns with Vijay Kumar of Haryana, who had to rough it out with Vikas Khatri of SSCB in hard fought contest.
In the fly weight division silver medallist at the recently concluded Tammer Tournament in Finland, Madan Lal of IBF team had no problems edging past Sandeep Malik of Delhi. The 20 year old boxer from Haryana dominated the game with his precise and effective punches. He advanced to the last round with an impressive score of 21:11. Madan will now take on Sunil Kumar of the Railways in a bid to defend his title. Sunil, last year’s gold medal winner in the light fly weight division jumped a weight class and is now competing as a fly weight boxer. He defeated Govind Singh of Uttarakhand in a lop sided contest (13:6) to set up the clash.
2009 Asian Championship silver medallist Nanao Singh advanced to the finals without even having to step into the ring. The National Games gold medallist got a walk over from his opponent Bahadur Singh Rana of Uttarakhand as he was medically unfit. The 20 year old boxer will look to reclaim the title after missing out last year. In the finals he will battle against Pankaj Saini of Punjab, who drubbed L Amarjeet Singh of Manipur to set up the summit clash.
