Boxing Nationals: At your service: Services win 8 gold; Shiva Thapa defends title

Bellary, September 21

Rohit Mor stunned defending champion Mohammad Hussamuddin but the accomplished duo of Shiva Thapa and Sanjeet lived up to expectations by clinching gold medals in their respective weight categories at the men’s boxing Nationals here today.

Deepak Kumar (51kg), Akash (54kg), Akash (67), Sumit (75kg), Sachin Kumar (80kg), Lakshya (86kg) and Narender (+92kg) also secured gold at the Inspire Institute of Sports. All of them are from Services team.

All the gold medallists of the national championships will represent India at the World Championships scheduled from October 24-November 6 in Belgrade, Serbia.

All of them, except Shiva, will be competing in their maiden Worlds.

Delhi boxer Mor dished out a dominating 5-0 win over Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Hussamuddin, one of the strongest contenders for the title in the 57kg.

Reigning Asian champion Sanjeet, also representing Services, outclassed Haryana’s Naveen Kumar by a unanimous decision.

Seasoned boxer Shiva Thapa of Assam, a bronze medallist at the 2015 Worlds and also a five-time Asian medallist, successfully defended his title in an easy 5-0 win over Dalveer Singh Tomar of Services in the 63.5kg final.

Karnataka’s Nishant Dev also continued his brilliant run, blanking Amit Kumar of Daman, Diu and Nagar Haveli to win the 71kg title.

Deepak, an Asian championships silver medallist, was adjudged best boxer for his impressive performance.

Services defended their team title as they won 12 medals — eight gold, three silver and one bronze.

Railways (two gold, two bronze and three silver) and Delhi (one gold, four bronze) claimed the second and third position respectively.

For Railways, Varinder Singh (60kg) and Govind Sahani (48kg) claimed gold with identical unanimous victories. While the 2021 Asian Championships bronze medallist Varinder defeated Services’ Etash Khan Muhammed, Govind got the better of Chandigarh’s Kuldeep Kumar.

The championships, which returned after a gap of one year due to pandemic, saw participation of 35 states/UT units and boards and close to 400 boxers.

While the gold and silver medallists from each category will also get direct entry into the national coaching camp, the two bronze medallists will take part in the selection trials where they will compete alongside the boxers representing the second team of top-3 teams of the last national championships — Services, Railways and Haryana.

The announcement of the remaining two names for the national camp will be made on September 24 on the basis of results of the selection trials. — PTI