The Hindu : Khemanand displays his class

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 10, 2003

Sport

Sport - Boxing

Khemanand displays his class

By D. Ravi Shankar

Balbir Singh (right) all set to land a punch on L. Jauala of Mizoram in their light welterweight category bout of the senior National boxing championship in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

BANGALORE Sept. 9. Khemanand Belwal, one of the country's most promising boxers, showed his class in the light flyweight section of the senior Nationals opening round which commenced at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Tuesday.

Khemanand, a 21-year-old who is a soldier in the Kumaon regiment, landed a series of straight lefts and slipped in a couple of right hooks to Sarbjeet Singh's jaw to streak to a 22-9 points decision. Khemanand, who finished runner-up to Mohammed Ali Qamar in the last Nationals, said his bout was one-sided as his opponent was a novice in the ring. "The real challenge will come in the quarterfinals, semifinals and final,'' he said.

The challenge for Khemanand could come from Balbir Singh of Delhi, who despite a hard-fought round against L. Jauala of Mizoram, made the next round. Southpaw Balbir, winner of the junior National gold in 2002 at Sikkim, has an array of impressive titles on the international circuit. These include the under-17 World championship title at Hungary (2002) and the `best boxer' award twice at Germany in the past two years.

Balbir, however, was extended by Jauala as both boxers landed thudding punches on each other. Balbir's uppercuts and blows to the solar plexus of Jauala probably fetched him the unanimous points victory.

Another bout that was keenly watched was Diwakar Prasad's against R. Dorji. Diwakar, medal winner at Kuala Lumpur, is Railways' best bet for a gold here and he outclassed Dorji by a comfortable margin.

The results:

Light flyweight: S. Manoj lost to Arun Singh 2-13; Praful Lal bt Bharat Singh 19-5; Bhupendra Singh lost to Dharminder (rsc/oc, 1st round); Adil Shah lost to Handsa (rsc/oc, 3rd round); Santosh Thakur lost to Sunil Navgire 8-13; Bhuwaneswar lost to S.B. Thapa 13-26; Khemanand Belwal bt Sarbjeet Singh 32-9; L. Jauala lost to Balbir Singh (unanimous pts decision); Ashok Rana bt Srinivasan (rsc/oc, 1st round); Shishumoni Gogoi lost to Pawan Singh 13-26; Deepak Roy lost to Khemanand 13-26; Rajesh Chettri lost to Mukul Dutt 0-9; Flyweight: Dilip Singh lost to P.K. Naik 11-18.

Bantamweight: R. Raju bt Victor Kumar (rsc/oc 2nd round); Ashwani Sharma lost to S.K. Thapa 7-15; Rajesh Upadhyaya bt Sanjeet Foghat 8-7; Laldin Sangha w/o Anand Raj; Bijendar Singh bt N. Manhas (rsc/oc 2nd round); Sandeep Yadav lost to Dalbir Singh 8-9; D. Kannan bt Rakesh Kumar 11-2; S. Narendra Dev bt Santosh Kumar 11-4; Master Telikahi lost to B. Manjunath (rsc/oc 3rd round); Diwakar Prasad bt R. Dorji 20-5; Surindaran lost to Dinesh Yadav (Surindaran disqualified for hitting below the belt); Sanjay Yadav bt Pandarinath Shirodkar (rsc/oc 4th round); Mahesh Magda lost to Ravindra Singh (rsc/oc 1st round); Khapran bt K. Srinivas (rsc/oc 1st round); Abhimanyu Nayak lost to Amandeep Singh (rsc/os 2nd round).

Featherweight: Mohan Singh bt Pradip Mallagir (29-15); Ashish Sharma lost to Jaibhagwan SIngh (rsc/oc 4th round).

Welterweight: Wakil Ahmed lost to Gohikonayak (rsc/oc 3rd round).

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