Super Cup Boxing : Kolte, Devendro and Thapa in semi-final

Day 3 at the 5th Inter Zonal Men’s National Boxing Championship, presented by Monnet Ispat and Energy Limited and it was time for the quarter-final bouts. The five day long contest, being held in Mumbai from March 30th to April 3rd is an ideal ground to nurture boxing talent in the country. The tournament with its newly introduced concept of zonal and inter zonal boxing – a unique and innovative format, finds strong support in the form of Monnet Ispat and Energy Limited. Popularly known as the ‘Super Cup’, the event is organized by Mumbai City Boxing Association under the auspices of Maharashtra Boxing Association and the Indian Boxing Federation.

And after two days of relentless pugilism, the indoor stadium at the Andheri Sports Complex witnessed another mouth watering display of agility and skill. First up was the reigning national champion in the fly weight category, Madan Lal of the IBF team up against Sandeep Olla representing North East Zone (Yellow). Madan completely dominated the procdeedings from the get go. With some dynamic combination of left and right jabs, the boxer from Haryana went on to score a 5:1 victory on points. In the same category Vijay Dobale of Maharashtra caused an upset as he drubbed Vipin Kumar, a silver medallist at the 57th National Championship from Center Zone (Yellow). Dobale playing before his home crowd, did well to take a decisive one point lead in the third round to score a 3:2 win.

The light fly weight section of the tournament saw some power packed exhibition of technique and dominance. Sanjay Kolte of the IBF ruled the ring with his exceptional performance. After taking a two point lead in the first round, Kolte a bronze medallist at the 34th National Games delivered a knockout blow to Bahadur Singh Rana from Center Zone (Green). The blow was too much for Bahadur to handle and Kolte went on to win by a knock out. L Devendro Singh of the services was not far behind. Demonstrating his excellence of the craft, the feisty boxer from Manipur beat Anil Singh Kushwaha of Maharashtra by a huge margin of 12:1.

In the light weight class, Rohit Tokas a Delhi state youth champion from the Center Zone (Yellow) had an unforgiving day as he went down against Vipin Kumar of Haryana on virtue of points 5:3.On to the bantam weight division, where Shiva Thapa of IBF continued his good from. Thapa a bronze medallist at the 34th National Games, outclassed his opponent Dheerendra Kumar Yadav of the Center Zone (Green). With the help of some straight punches and exceptional footwork the man from Assam won on points 4:1.

In the clash of the light heavy weights, Vikas Singh of IBF marched into the semi-final with an easy victory over Vinod Kumar of Chandhigarh. Vikas who won a bronze medal at 57th National Championship last year, proved too much to handle for his opponent as he registered a 4:1 win.Warm RegardsBrig PK Muralidharan Raja, SM, VSMSecretary GeneralIndian Boxing Federation1st April, 2011