The Hindu : Sport : Railways pips Services to retain crown

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Saturday, Sep 13, 2008
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Railways pips Services to retain crown

Y.B. Sarangi

Kuldeep Singh clinches gold in middleweight category; Manoj Kumar wins

— Photo: S. Subramanium

THE BEST: Kuldeep Singh, who won the gold in the middleweight category, has been declared the best boxer of the championship.

BATHINDA: Railways tamed strong contender Services by a solitary point to retain its crown in the 55th National boxing championship at the Giani Zail Singh Stadium here on Friday. The defending champion gathered 50 points in a neck-and-neck contest for the championship crown.

Railways won four gold, one silver and three bronze while Services bagged three gold, three silver and one bronze. Punjab, which got 34 points and five medals including three gold, was third.

Defending the title was a significant achievement for Railways considering the fact that it entered the competition without three of its top pugilists — Vijender Singh, Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar.

“It was tough. We were without some of our best boxers, we had the replay of Manoj Kumar’s bout against Som Bahadur Pun, so it feels nice to be on top,” Railways coach Jaidev Bisht said.

Punjab’s Kuldeep Singh, who won the gold in the middleweight category, was declared the ‘Best Boxer’ of the championship while Rakesh Kalaskar, the lightweight silver medallist from Services, got the ‘Best Loser’ award.

Thrilling contest

In one of the most thrilling contests of the day, Jasveer Singh (Railways) staged a fightback to beat Services’ Mahindra Thapa 16-14.

Thapa seized the initiative by taking a 3-1 lead in the first round and extended it to 6-2 in the second. Jasveer, however, bounced back through some strong counter-attacks in the third round, during which both the boxers conceded two penalty points each.

With points tied at 10-10, the fight entered the fourth round and Jasveer landed some telling punches on Thapa’s face to garner six points and bag the third gold medal for his team.

Earlier, Manoj Kumar, who got a walkover from Pun, in a controversial quarterfinal bout, gave Railways its first gold as he did not toil too much while outwitting Meghalaya’s Vijay Thapa 15-4. Manoj took time to corner his rival. In the first two rounds he led by margins of 3-0 and 5-1, but stepped up the attack to gather 10 points in the last two to record a comprehensive victory for his maiden gold at the Nationals.

Film actor Sanjay Dutt, in his new role as the brand ambassador of Indian boxing, was present to lend his support. “I have been given a huge responsibility. I hope India will win a gold medal in the next Olympics,” he said.

The results (finals): 48 kg: Amandeep Singh (Pun) bt Manawar Hussain (RSPB) 7-7 (16-14 countback). 51 kg: M. Suranjay Singh (SSCB) bt Hemant Kumar (Jha) 19-9.

54 kg: Torak Kharparan (Meg) bt S. Suresh Singh (CISF) 23-22.

57 kg: Chhotelal Yadav (SSCB) bt M.B. Pagare (Mah) 25-8.

60 kg: Amandeep Singh (Pun) bt Rakesh Kalaskar (SSCB) 22-9.

64 kg: Manoj Kumar (RSPB) bt Vijay Thapa (Meg) 15-4.

69 kg: Dilbagh Singh (RSPB) bt Jai Singh Patil (SSCB) 16-4.

75 kg: Kuldeep Singh (Pun) bt Manjeet (Har) 21-15. 81 kg: Jasveer Singh (RSPB) bt Mahindra Thapa (SSCB) 16-14.

91 kg: Manpreet Singh (SSCB) bt Narendra (Del) 21-5. Over 91 kg: Paramjeet Samota (RSPB) bt Arun Kumar (Har) 26-11.

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