Olympian Dinesh Kumar's return to the ring after more than two years due to a career-threatening injury was one of the amazing stories on the third day of the National boxing championship at the Nabin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor Stadium, Sarusajai, here on Saturday.
Dinesh, who competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and bagged an 81kg silver medal in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, was seriously injured in a road accident prior to the 2014 Commonwealth Games and was ruled out of action.
However, Dinesh, who got a first round bye, surprised all by taking the ring in 91kg category here. The Haryana cop, who had a metal rod inserted into his right arm, needed only 20 seconds to ensure victory and reach the quarterfinals. His opponent, Tanish from Rajasthan, got two standing counts before referee stopped contest.
“I had lost muscles around the bone in my right arm. It has developed newly. Everybody said my boxing career was over. However, my mother was keen to see me back in the ring. I had a bout of chikungunya. Just had two months to train for this,” said Dinesh.
“People are wondering why I am taking risk, but boxing is full of risks. I want to win the National title and then target the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games in 2018,” he said.
In an exciting 52kg pre-quarterfinal contest, Kavinder Singh of Services defied an injury to witness a turnaround of decision in his favour against Railways' J. Bhaskar.
In the second round, two quick blows from Bhaskar badly bruised Kavinder's left eye-brow and the referee had to stop the contest on doctor's advice.
When Bhaskar was declared the winner, Services coaches pointed out that, as per the change in rule, in case a contest got stopped due to an injury then the winner must be decided on points. Earlier, the injured boxer used to end up on the losing side.
Realising the faux pas, the jury promptly counted the scores and unanimously declared Kavinder as the winner.
Shiva Thapa staved off a strong challenge from Manish to make it to the 60kg quarterfinals.
The results (pre-quarterfinals):
49kg: Amit (Har) bt Rubul (Asm) 5-0, Bahadur Rana (SSCB) bt B. Deepak (Tel) 5-0.
52kg: Neeraj (Del) bt Gobind (UP) 5-0, Niraj (Har) bt Roshan (Raj) 5-0, Devendro Singh (Man) bt Arvind (Utk) 5-0, Kavinder Singh (SSCB) bt J. Bhaskar (RSPB) 5-0.
56kg: Ananta Chopre (Mah) bt Karling Natung (Aru) RSC, Shashi Kant (Mah) bt Roton Basumatri (Nag) RSC.
60kg: Shiva Thapa (Asm) bt Manish (SSCB) 4-1, Sunil Kumar (Bih) bt Arvind (Meg) 3-2, Vijay Kumar (Pun) bt Pawan Kumar ((Del) 3-2.
64kg: Sandeep (AIP) bt Puran Day (HP) 5-0, Prasadula (AP) bt Akash Naik (Goa), Rohit (RSPB) bt Pritam Singh (Raj) RSC.
69kg: Andy Chauha (Miz) bt Nandan (Kar) 5-0, Ankush Hudda (Chd) bt Rocky (Har) 4-1, Ashish (JK) bt Neeraj (AIP) 5-0, Manoj Kumar (RSPB) bt Tilok Budha (Meg) 5-0, Manish (MP) bt Jitendro Singh (Utk) 3-2, Duryodhan Singh (SSCB) bt Sanjeet Singh (Pun) 4-1
75kg: Aditya Mann (Har) bt Aditya Mane (Mah) 5-0, Venhlimpuia (Miz) bt Sukhraj Singh (AIP) K.O. (R3), Sumit Kumar (Utk) bt Durgesh Kumar (Chd) 5-0,
81kg: Manish Panwar (RSPB) bt Vijay Kumar (D&D) retired (R1), Vivek (Kar) bt Shivraj (Pud) RSC, Jay Saxena (Utk) bt Farhan Shaikh (Goa) RSC.
91kg: Virender Kumar (HP) bt Sumit Singh (Tel) RSC, Dinesh Kumar (AIP) bt Tanish (Raj) RSC, Jasveer Singh (RSPB) bt Rohit Shinde (Man) RSC.
+91kg: Ajit Negi (Utk) bt Ayush (MP) 5-0, Satish Kumar (SSCB) bt Krishana (Raj) 5-0, Akash (Del) bt Devender Kmar (AIP) 3-2.
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