IBF Team Bags Top Honours At The Fifth Super Cup

The entire nation was engulfed in a sports frenzy, with India’s historic win at the Wankhede stadium in Mubai, but there was another treat awaiting the Mumbaikars – the finals of the 5th Inter Zonal Men’s National Boxing Championship, presented by Monnet Ispat and Energy Limited.

The tournament, because of its unique format of zonal and inter zonal boxing, has become a premier boxing competition in the country, especially for the budding boxers, as they get a chance to make a mark at the national arena. The Andheri Sports complex on Sunday, saw a plethora of top pugilists take on each other to be crowned zonal national champions.

In the light fly weight category, L Devendro Singh of the Services Sports Control Board continued to display his excellence in the craft. Up against Pushkar P Bhonsle of West Zone (Green), the feisty boxer from Manipur, kept the pressure on not allowing his opponent to score in the first two rounds. Devendro went on to claim the top honours on points 5:1.

Pushkar P Bhonsle (Red) taking guard against L Devendro Singh (Blue) – Light Fly Weight

Madal Lal, who has been in exceptional form through out the tournament, once again showed why he is the reigning national champion in the fly weight division. Playing for the IBF team, Madan won the gold medal beating Devender of North Zone (Yellow). Devender had no answer to his strong defence and counter attacks. The man from Haryana won on points 4:1.

Expressing his excitement over the victory Madan said,”I have played against Devender many times but today’s victory takes the top spot as I dominated the bout and won by a fair margin. I now look forward to getting picked for the India camp and performing at the international arena”.

The bantam weight category saw Shiva Thapa of the IBF team, claim his second medal at the senior level, after winning a silver at the 34th National Games. The nimble footed boxer from Assam, completely outclassed his opponent Anil Kumar of East Zone (Green). With the help of some hard hitting straight punches, Thapa took a 3 nil lead after the first two rounds. He went on to take the yellow metal by virtue of a 4:1 victory.

“I was not an easy fight for me, but I had done my homework and was well prepared, a strong guard aided me defend well and my counter attacks helped my win the bout”, expressed an elated Shiva after the fight.

Shiva Thapa (Blue) vs Anil Kumar (Red) – Bantam Weight

The finals also witnessed a close contest in the form of Siddharth Verma of Maharashtra versus Deepak Tanwar of North Zone (Yellow) in the light welter weight category. Playing before his home crowd Siddharth, who had a one point deficit after the second did well to come back strong in the third. A fierce combination of left and right jabs saw him clinch the gold with a 5:4 win.

Siddharth Verma (Red) Wins His Bout Against Deepak Tanwar (Blue) – Light Welter Weight

A big upset in the finals came in the form of Vikas Singh of the IBF team going down. Vikas a bronze medalist at the National Championships last year was completely out of sorts against Berinder Singh of North Zone (Yellow) in the light heavy weight category. Berinder took advantage of the situation and soon took a 5 nil lead after the second round, from there on he completely dominated the proceedings and won the gold with a huge margin of 10:2.

At the end it was the IBF team that bagged the top honours followed by North Zone (Yellow) and SSCB in the second and third positions respectively.

Kindly visit www.indiaboxing.in for the Championship results and team standings.

Warm RegardsBrig PK Muralidharan Raja, SM, VSMSecretary GeneralIndian Boxing Federation3rd April, 2011