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Fight to finish in lower weight bouts
The 57th Senior Men’s National Boxing Championship is witnessing a keen contest in the lower-weight categories. The semifinals of the light fly and flyweight categories on Thursday turned out to be a closely contested affair, with all bouts going down to the wire.
The 57th Senior Men’s National Boxing Championship is witnessing a keen contest in the lower-weight categories. The semifinals of the light fly and flyweight categories on Thursday turned out to be a closely contested affair, with all bouts going down to the wire.
In the first semifinal of the light flyweight category, Vipin Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) sneaked into the final with a thrilling 7-6 win over M.Murgan (Tamil Nadu).
The second semi-final in this category between Amandeep Singh (RSPB) and Sunil (Haryana) turned out to be even more exciting. Both the boxers were neck and neck right through the bout, with Sunil managing one point more than his opponent in the last round to eke out a thrilling win. Both of them were tied at one point each in the first round, and the deadlock continued even in the second round with both of them again managing a point each. In the final round, Sunil managed to pick four points as against three by Amandeep to enter the final. Sunil also works with the Railways but entered the competition from Haryana as he was not selected to represent his department.
“I knew it would be a good bout as Amandeep is a fine boxer but I knew I could beat him,” said Sunil. Sunil has earlier won a gold medal in 2006 Asian and World Cadet Championship. The following year he won gold in the Junior Asian Championship and the Senior Commonwealth Games championship.
The semis of the flyweight category were also fought with same vigour. In the first bout, Madan Lal of Haryana defeated Suraj of Arunachal Pradesh 2-1. The second semifinal between Sanjay Singh (RSPB) and Santosh (Goa), too, kept the spectators on the edge of their seats. Eventually, Sanjay Singh managed a close 2-1 win. Sanjay, who had come into the bout after beating Balbir Singh — who defeated Suranjoy in the pre-quarters — kept up the good work to make it to the final.
“I am confident of winning the gold,” said Sanjay.
