National Boxing championships: Sumit Sangwan among winners on day one

Among other boxers who made impressive starts were Maharashtra's Nikhil Dubey and Chhattisgarh's Dinesh Kumar. Competing in the 75kg category, both the boxers claimed contrasting victories.

Sumit notched up a comfortable win over Andhra Pradesh's Harish Prasadula by unanimous margin in the 86kg opening round match.(File photo)

Olympian and Asian medallist Sumit Sangwan began his journey in a new weight division on a confident note as he won his first round bout in 86kg on the opening day of the National boxing championships at the Inspire Institute of Sports campus here on Wednesday.

Representing Haryana, Sangwan, who competed in 91kg in the last National championships in Baddi in 2019 and in 81kg in the Asian boxing championships in May last, won his bout against Harish Prasadula of Andhra Pradesh 5-0 in the newly-introduced weight category.

Another experienced hand, Delhi’s Neeraj Swami, the 2019 President’s Cup gold medallist, also made a winning start as he beat Haryana’s Sagar 5-0 in a 48kg class bout of the event, which made a comeback after a year’s gap due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Punjab’s Rajpinder Singh trounced his opponent Rahul Niltu from Himachal Pradesh 5-0 in a 54kg bout. Maharashtra’s Nikhil Dubey and Chhattisgarh’s Dinesh Kumar Yadav posted contrasting victories in 75kg.

Nikhil beat Sejad Lilgar of Gujarat as the referee stopped the contest (RSC) in the first round. Dinesh had to work hard against Bengal’s Abhishek Shaw before securing a 3-2 win.