The Hindu : Diwakar wrests title from Dalbir

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 15, 2003

Sport

Sport - Boxing

Diwakar wrests title from Dalbir

By D. Ravi Shankar

Diwakar Prasad lands a left jab on Dalbir Singh in their bantamweight final of the National boxing championship in Bangalore on Sunday.

BANGALORE Sept. 14. An old saying goes `save the best for the last.' That held good on the final day of the 50th senior National boxing championship which concluded at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Sunday.

The bantamweight bout between Diwakar Prasad of Railways and Dalbir Singh of Central Industrial Security Force took on gladiatorial proportions. The bout was rescheduled as the last bout in order to let the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr. S.M. Krishna witness an interesting match. He, however, surprised everybody by turning up ahead of schedule and watching the last five bouts.

Dalbir, the defending champion, was not going to give up his crown easily. Diwakar started off in rousing fashion. With his left jabs landing regularly Diwakar was able to slip in some powerful hooks onto Dalbir. The ring judges awarded the round 8-3 to Diwakar.

In the second Dalbir fought back gallantly and landed a number of punches on Diwakar's head. Diwakar too was in an aggressive frame of mind to gain an 11-10 verdict. The third round saw Dalbir stave off a number of Diwakar's punches and land some powerful right crosses in.

Diwakar was shaken by a couple of hard blows and looked groggy. Dalbir won the round 9-8.

The final round was a bit fortuitous for Diwakar. Dalbir twice had Diwakar on the ropes and taking a count of eight from the judge. Diwakar, however, grittily held on and even landed a flurry of punches as the round was coming to a close. The round was shared 9-9 and Diwakar wrested the title from Dalbir.

The bout between Bijender of Haryana and Harvinder Singh of Punjab proved to be a no contest. Bijender after an initial sparring start caught Harvinder with a powerful uppercut to the chin. Harvinder did not survive the next hook to the head and retired in the first round itself. Bijender was declared `best boxer' of the tournament.

Probably the closest contest of the day was between Parvinder Singh and Durjay Shastri. In an absolutely brutal fight, the two middleweight boxers slugged it out punch for punch. Neither boxer yielded ground as they fought a hard bout. The judges awarded a tied score of 28 all with Parvinder winning 112-95 on the countback.

Karnataka's hopes for a gold was thwarted as all-India Police's Dilbagh Singh was too crafty for V. Lavi. Dilbagh with a series of lefts followed by a cross right kept picking up points. Lavi's efforts to land a big punch failed as he was not accurate. Dilbagh won the bout on points while Lavi was declared the `best loser.'

He also had made the squad for the probables to train for the Afro Asian Games and the Goa international. Services Sports Control Board retained its team title and Railways Sports Promotion Board was once again runner-up. Haryana finished third.

The results: finals: Light flyweight: Khemanand Belwal (SSCB) bt Sonu (Har) 36-20. Fly weight: S. Suresh Singh (CISF) bt Girish Pawar (Mah) 28-18. Featherweight: A.L. Lakra (SSCB) bt Mujtaba Kamal (RSPB) 19-9. Lightweight: Ng Dingko Singh (SSCB) bt Dharamveer Singh (RSPB) 23-12. Light welterweight: Bijendar (Har) bt Harvinder Singh (retd 1st rd). Welterweight: Dilbagh Singh (AIP) bt V. Lavi (Kar) 23-12. Middleweight: Parvinder Singh (Har) bt Durjay Shastri (RSPB) 28/28 (112-95 on countback). Light heavyweight: Raj Kumar (AIP) w/o from Anant Singh. Heavyweight: Harpreet Singh (RSPB) bt Sarvjeet Singh (SSCB) 33-11. Super heavyweight: V. Johnson (SSCB) bt Jitender Kumar Singh (Megh) 14-10. Bantamweight: Diwakar Prasad (RSPB) bt Dalbir Singh (CISF) 36-31. Team championship: 1. SSCB (50 pts), 2. RSPB (37 pts), 3. Haryana (33 pts).