The Hindu : Sport / Boxing : National championship gets underway today

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Saturday, Aug 25, 2007
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National championship gets underway today

Kirti Patil

NEW DELHI: The National boxing championship gets underway at the Karnail Singh Stadium here on Saturday.

Akhil Kumar, the Commonwealth Games bantamweight champion, will miss his fourth straight National — still recuperating from wrist injury. In Akhil’s place, reigning National champion, Bijender will take the ring.

The middleweight pugilist Vijender is back in action and exuded confidence of making it to the World championship in Chicago. The National championship here will be the major factor in deciding who make it to the Indian team for the October 23-November 3 World championship — the first Olympic qualification event.

Dominant force

Services has been the dominant force in boxing in the last two years, winning the championship title in 2005 and 2006. V. Johnson, the super heavy bronze medallist at the Doha Asian Games and light-flyweight Sanjay Kolte will lead the Services challenge. Services is fielding an experienced team including international Som Bahadur Pun (64 kg) and A. L. Lakra (57 kg).

While Railways’ line-up looks formidable this time with World cadet champion Balbir Singh (48 kg), Asian bronze medallist Jitender Kumar (51 kg) and Jai Bhagwan (60 kg). However, the host will be missing Diwakar Prasad, who fell ill and is out of action.

The six-day championship will see over 300 boxers competing at the Railways cricket stadium.

About six states — Kerala, Electricity Board, Pondicherry, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Goa — learnt this the hard way as the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) tightened its rules with regard to the entries from each participating unit.

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