Sanjeet of the Services, who emerged as the best pugilist in Asia following an online poll by the Asian Boxing Confederation, dented his reputation somewhat when he went down in a split decision to Manish Rathore of Uttar Pradesh who moved into the semifinals of the 46 kg class in the BFI’s second Junior National Boxing Championships at the University Hall here today.
However, his teammate S. Victor Singh, the Nation’s Cup bronze medallist, made amends as he beat Haryana’s Vikas, also by a split decision, in 50 kg to enter the last four stages.
The other pugilists who made the semifinal grades included Vikas Thakur of Punjab (46), who beat Divyanshu Gautam of Haryana 5:0, even as another Services boxer, Lakhmani, did well to take his allotted spot with a 5:0 victory over Uttarakhand’s Sanjay Kumar in 58 kg while Abhinash Jamwal of Punjab overcame the last-round hitch to romp home 4:1 winner against Maharashtra’s Basavraj Kattimani.
Sanjeet was billed as a gold medal prospect before the nationals and he lived up to his reputation until the pre-quarterfinals. But today, he was hampered by the tactics of Rathore, who mixed guile with speedy movement to upset the Services boxer. The 3:2 verdict in favour of UP boxer must have come as a surprise to many, but Rathore did pack a few punches in the last two rounds to make an impression on the judges.
In comparison, Sanjeet’s teammates—Victor and Lakhmani—had more or less sewn up their bouts by the end of second rounds with the former getting a clear decision while the latter a pointless as the Maharashtra rival used his reach well to land a few punches on Lakhmani, especially in the last round.
Vikas Thakur, on the other hand, was a clear winner right landing his combination punches on a hapless Haryana opponent Divyansh from the first round, only to increase the temp in the second before slowing down in the third.
As for the girls, the 48 kg category bout between two international gold medal winners Ekta Saroj from Punjab and Tingmila Doungal from Manipur saw the Punjab girl emerging 5:0 winner and entered the semifinals. Though both pugilists were fierce to begin with got slowed midway through only to up the ante in the last round in which Saroj’s straights and lefts proved to be crucial.
In 52kg class, Sandeep Kaur Punjab, the gold medalist at the 13th Silesian Cup in Poland won by 5-0 against Lalthuthlungdiki of Mizoram to make the semifinal grade. Similarly, Tannu from Haryana won her quarterfinal bout against Aarya Kulkarni of Maharashtra, the international boxer winning by 5-0 verdict.
In the 54 kg category, Haryana’s Poonam who won gold at the 2nd Nation’s Cup, spent very little time at the ring beating her Jharkhand rival, Eisha Kumari Das, as she forced the referee stop content midway through the first round. The RSC-1 verdict proved how strong the Haryana girl was as the Jharkhand boxer could not do much against the flurry coming from her opponent. And Arshi Khanam won her 57 kg quarterfinal bout rather easily against Telangana’s P. Sri Chandana. The Rajasthan boxer, a gold medal winner at the Silesian Cup won 5:0.