From a Correspondent
Rohtak, July 7,
Yashwardhan Singh of Haryana and Karan Vats of Delhi continue being the standout performers as they entered the semi-finals and confirmed medals at the first ever Sub Junior Boys’ Boxing Nationals held at the National Boxing Academy (NBA) in Rohtak on Saturday. Singh, a trainee at the NBA in Rohtak under the Khelo India scheme, demolished Karan Bisht of Services 5-0 to keep his fine run going.
Vats, who was the silver medallist at the School Nationals last year, was equally impressive in his 40kg quarter-final bout with Bengal’s Anshu Routh whom he beat 5-0.
The highly-skilled Vats was not the only one to win from Delhi on Day 5 of this prestigious national tournament. In 35kg, Rudra outpunched Goa’s Laxman Toralkar 5-0 to enter the semis. Deepanshu in 43kg was another winner for Delhi after beating Daman & Diu’s Priyanshu Kumar 4-1.
Punjab’s Nikhil dominated Daman & Diu’s Sumit 5-0 to keep hopes alive for the state. Chandigarh also registered a win through Aryan in 37kg who knocked out Sunil Kumar 5-0
Maharashtra had double delight through Vedantbengle in 40kg and Gopal Katta in 37kg. While the former showed his resilience in his narrow 3-2 victory over Haryana’s Divansh Shukla, the latter dominated Uttarakhand’s Aditya Tamta 5-0. Suraj Saini also assured a medal for Madhya Pradesh in 55kg after getting the better of Punjab’s Manmeet Singh 5-0. In 43kg, Goanese Rupesh Bind shone with a RSC in Round II victory over Madhya Pradesh’s Kishan Dadoriya.
The North-East, a long-established powerhouse of Indian boxing, too entered the medal bracket thanks to the efforts of Mizoram’s LH Peihneisa in 37kg and Arunachal’s Tadar Tadang in 46kg. The Mizo pugilist hardly broke a sweat in his 5-0 victory over Himachal’s Jagjeet. In sharp contrast, Tadang was made to work very hard by Thokchon Robert of the Services before he could grab a 3-2 victory.
33 teams and 326 boxers have participated in this seven-day tournament which will conclude with a grand finale on July 8.