Manoj Kumar claimed his second successive National Championships’ gold but Shiva Thapa settled for a silver on an eventful day of summit clashes in the premier domestic boxing event on Monday.
Manoj (69kg), competing for the Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB), got the better of Services Sports Control Board’s (SSCB) Duryodhan Singh for his second successive gold at the event with a 4-1 win.
Defending champion Thapa, however, lost on a split verdict to SSCB’s Manish Kaushik, settling for the silver medal in the lightweight (60kg) category. King’s Cup gold-medallist Shyam Kumar (49kg), who was representing RSPB, pulled off a close 3-2 win over Mizoram’s Nt Lalbiakkima in the final to claim the top honours.
Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Mandeep Jangra, who is competing for the RSPB, won his maiden national title in the middleweight (75kg) category, after he out-punched Mizoram’s Vanhlimpuia 5-0. Asian Games bronze-medallist Satish, who turned up for SSCB, defeated Haryana’s Parvin Kumar 5-0 to claim the super heavyweight (+91kg) gold.
In the other bouts of the day, SSCB’s Madan Lal became the bantamweight (56kg) champion after edging past Goa’s Santosh Harijan 3-2 in a hard-fought contest. The light welterweight (64kg) crown went to SSCB’s Dheeraj Rangi.
Dheeraj did not even have to step inside the ring as his rival, Basant Thapa of Madhya Pradesh, gave him a walkover owing to an injury picked up his previous bout. Similar was the case of Manish Panwar, who clinched the 81kg gold after a walkover from Delhi rival Neel Kamal.
Haryana fetched just one gold medal in this edition with Naman picking up the heavyweight (91kg) top honours with a 5-0 win over Himachal Pradesh’s Varinder Kumar. RSPB’s Salman Sheikh beat Laldinmawia of Mizoram to claim the top honours in the 52kg division.
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