National Boxing Championship: Manoj Kumar goes for gold

The big surprise of the evening was when Santosh Harijan of Goa, who is a big hit with the crowds with his peculiar mannersims and evasive technique, got the better of Sukraj Rai of Sikkim with a 5-0 win on points in the bantam weight category semifinal.

Manoj’s wonderful combination of left and right jabs had the relatively inexperienced opponent on the defensive for most of the fight.

Double Olympian Manoj Kumar of Railways stayed on course for a gold with a fluent win over Shubham of Punjab with a 5-0 win on points in the welter weight category semifinal of the second Elite Men’s national boxing championship at the Swarna Bharati Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.

Manoj’s wonderful combination of left and right jabs had the relatively inexperienced opponent on the defensive for most of the fight.

The big surprise of the evening was when Santosh Harijan of Goa, who is a big hit with the crowds with his peculiar mannersims and evasive technique, got the better of Sukraj Rai of Sikkim with a 5-0 win on points in the bantam weight category semifinal.

In a light welter category semifinal, SAF Games gold medallist Dheeraj Kumar of Services was also dominant in his 5-0 win over Ankit Khatana of Haryana.

In the fly weight category semifinal, Railways’s suffered a big blow when the referee stopped the contest in the third round after its injured boxer Salman Shekh took the second count from referee Ravi Raju in the third round for the cut he suffered on the left eye in the previous round to the delight of his opponent Vinod Tanwar of Haryana.

 

The results: All semifinals:

Light fly: NT Lalbiakkima (Miz) bt Pardeep Sharma (J & K) 4-1; K. Shyam Kumar (RSPB) bt Vipin Kumar (Chd) 5-0.

Fly: Laldinmawia (Miz) bt Chandan Das (Asm) 5-0; Vinod Tanwar (Har) bt Salman Shekh (RSPB) – RSC – injury 3 round.

Bantam: Madan Lal (SSCB) bt Varinder Singh (Pjb) 4-1; Santosh Harijan (Goa) bt Sukraj Rai (Skm) 5-0.

Light: Shiva Thapa (Asm) bt Buntee Singh (Dli) 5-0; Manish Kaushik (SSCB) bt Palwinder Singh (Pjb) 5-0.

Light welter: Basant Thapa (MP) bt Jimil Thomas (Ker) 3-2; Dheeraj Kumar (SSCB) bt Ankit Khatana (Har) 5-0.

Welter: Duryodhan Singh (SSCB) bt Manish Uikey (MP) 5-0; Manoj Kumar (RSPB) bt Shubham (Pjb) 5-0.

Middle: Mandeep Jhangra (RSPB) bt Parag Chauhan (Dli) 5-0; Vanhlimpuia (Miz) bt Anup Chhetri (Meg) 5-0.

Light heavy: Neel Kamal (Dli) bt Jagat Singh Belal (Utk) 4-1; Manish Panwar (RSPB) bt Brijesh Yadav (Raj) – RSC injury.

Heavy: Varinder Kumar (HP) bt Kishan Thapa (Meg) 4-1; Naman (Har) bt Sagar Chikara (RSPB) 5-0.

Super heavy: Parvin Kumar (Har) bt Samrat Ingle (Maha) RSC – 2 round; Abhay Partap Singh (UP) bt Satish Kumar (SSCB) – RSC 2 round.