The fourth day of action at the 44th Youth Men’s National boxing Championship presented by Monnet I spat and Energy Limited. And the competition was getting stronger as the tournament headed into the semi-final stage. Boxing aficionados in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh got what they desired most, an awe-inspiring display of the sporting talent by the young aspiring pugilists, looking to be crowned national youth champions.
The action began in the light fly weight division with K Sagar of Andhra Pradesh taking on Rahul Punia of Haryana in what was a display of exceptional grit and relentless action. Punia, a gold medallist 26th Junior National Championship started well, taking a 2 nil lead in the opening round. But the local lad, Sagar answered back with some great combination punches in the second. In the third he took a crucial one point lead to make his place in the final by virtue of an 11:10 victory. Sagar will now face Tara Chand of Madhya Pradesh in the final, who hammered D. Mathiazhagan of Tamil Nadu to an 11:5 defeat.
Govind Singh of Uttarakhand, who beat bronze medallist at the 43rd Youth National Championship, Asad Asif Khan in the quarters had to face defeat at the hands of Bala Krishna also of Andhra Pradesh, in the fly weight category. Both the boxers adopted a defensive approach in the first two rounds, but in the third it was Bala who got a vital lead and with it a place in the last two of the championship. He won on points 3:2. He now meets Vivek Subba of Arunachal Pradesh in the final.
The summit clash in the bantam weight class will witness Md. Hussain Uddin representing the host state versus Ajay Kumar of Haryana. Hussain beat Nagesh Kharare playing for Maharashtra, while Ajay trounced Govarthan of Karnataka to make their place in the finals.
Lokesh Bhoj of the services team displayed his supremacy in the light weight division as he hammered Basant Thapa of Madhya Pradesh to a 7 nil beating after three rounds of play. The gold medallist at the 2010 Junior National Championship will now lock horns with Rohit Tokas of Delhi in the fight for the yellow metal.
In the middle weight category Surender Singh of Haryana and Abhishek Beniwal of the SSCB notched of contrasting wins in their semi-final bouts. While Singh, the reigning champion completely outclassed Arun Sharma of Punjab, with the referee having to stop the fight, Abhishek had to dig deep against Raj Bharath of Tamil Nadu.
The tournament being presented by the Monnet Ispat & Energy Limited depicts a perfect example of joint efforts made by the Indian Boxing Federation as well as Monnet Group towards strengthening the hold of the sport in the country. Moreover the event will also serve as a selection ground to shortlist players constituting the core group to be trained for the Youth Commonwealth Games.
For complete day semi-final results and final line up of the championship kindly refer to the official website of the Indian Boxing Federation www.indiaboxing.in.
