The Service team reigned supreme, yet again at the Men’s Junior National Boxing Championship. It was a riveting performance by the boys in uniform throughout the tournament, and the day of the finals was no different. With nine boxers having qualified for the Championship round in the 27th edition of the tournament, the defending champions seemed well on course of winning the title once again.
Services team got off to a blistering start winning the first four bouts of the day. Naveen Kumar (50kg), PL Prasad (48kg), Ankur Bansiwal (46kg) and Sandeep Bagri (52kg) capped off a brilliant performance winning the yellow metal in their respective weight category.
Playing in the fly weight division, Naveen a product of the Army Boys Sports Company was up against Rakesh of Haryana. The silver medallist at the 2011 Junior World Championships started off slowly as a part of a well devised strategy. The 16 year old was leading with only a single point (6:5) after the first four minutes of play when he launched an all-out offensive in the final round, to stretch the advantage. The Haryana lad was all at by against the more experienced Naveen, who went to claim the gold with a 10:6 win and with it his first Junior National title.
“I learned a lot from my experience in the Junior World Championships and it paid off in this tournament. The confident that I gained there helped me be consistent throughout the competition, I am very happy with my performance”, said an elated Naveen.
In the much anticipated clash of the day, the finals of the fly weight division witnessed Prasad, a quarter-finalist at the 2011 Junior World Championships take on Shyam Kumar of Andhra Pradsesh a gold medal winner at the 2010 Invitational boxing tournament in Kazakhstan. Prasad, who defeated England’s European Junior Championships silver medallist Luke McCormack at the Junior World Championships, adopted an aggressive approach right from the start, not allowing Kumar to settle down. He kept building on his lead through-out the bout, in the end claiming his second Junior National title with a 16:10 victory.
Prasad, also a product of the Army Boys Sports Company was grateful for the support and training provided by the Army Sport Institute and dedicated his win to the efforts of his coaches and managers.
“It is a victory not just for me but for our team as well, I am glad to have been a part of it,” expressed and emotional Prasad after his gold medal winning bout.
Bagri, a reigning junior national champion beat A. Silambarasan of Tamil Nadu (11:7) to take the gold in the light bantam weight division while Bansiwal hammered Amit Panghal of Haryana (11:4) into submission to claim top honours in the pin weight class.
SSCB continued to stamp its authority in the welter and the heavy categories as well. Sandeep Sharma a bronze medal winner at the 2011 International boxing tournament in Kazakhstan drubbed Deepak Sheron of Haryana to win his first national gold medal.
C Dadu Singh shattered the brittle defence offered by Akshay Rawal of Uttarakhand in the welter weight section. The 15 year old was ahead 18:10, when the referee decided to stop the bout, declaring Singh victorious. Navneet Singh Rathore upstaged Rishabh Purohit of Madhya Pradesh in a lop-sided affair to win the heavy weight junior national title.
And by the end of the day Services won the title with 8 gold medals, 1 silver and 2 bronze. Haryana had to settle with the runners up trophy once again with 2 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals while Mizoram completed the podium claiming 1 gold and 4 bronze medals.
Lt Col RS Bhoker, the manager of the service team was extremely pleased with his team’s performance and stated, “I am really glad to see our hard work pay off with the boys performing so well. The services team has witnessed constant evolution. We are relentlessly working towards our main goal and that is winning laurels for the country in the form of Olympic medals.”
