Pune: For the fifth day in a row, the men’s Nationals didn’t see any major upsets as Railways and Services had an unblemished record with their star boxers outclassing their opponents.
Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg) and Manish Kaushik (60kg) registered routine wins via unanimous decision to enter the semi-finals.
Tamil Nadu had a memorable day too with two of their boxers reaching the last four.
The impressive Himanshu Sharma of Punjab (49kg) also continued his winning run, opening the day with a split-decision victory over Neeraj Swamy.
It was then that the Railways-Services duopoly got under way. Deepak was in fine form and got the better of Haryana’s Vinod Tanwar. Deepak (49kg) was at his attacking best and displayed a solid guard in defence. There were no troubles whatsoever for Railways’s Sachin Siwach and Services’s PL Prasad, both of whom are in the same weight category (52kg).
Sachin was watchful in the first round against Manjeet Kumar Shaw of West Bengal but came into his own in the second and third. The 19-year-old executed a flurry of punches in short bursts to surprise his opponent. Sachin’s feline reflexes also aided him in defence. “It was my strategy to take notice of my opponent’s strength early on,” Sachin told Scroll.in. “I thought my reach and endurance helped my a great deal.”
The former youth champion acknowledged that he has a tough fight against former national champion PL Prasad later on. Prasad’s adventurous approach once again paid rich dividends as he defeated Pedda Appala Raju of Andhra Pradesh.
TN’s R Madhan ended Odisha’s Raju Naik’s impressive run in a closely-fought bout.
Karnataka’s Karthik and M Moovendran were involved in one of the best contests of the day. The latter prevailed in a split-decision 3:2 verdict. It was Karthik who started well, delivering neat combinations. Karthik’s guard was a tad weak in the second round and Moovendran took full advantage through his fists of fury.
“I had fought against him [Karthik] in the state championships and knew his game before-hand,” Moovendran said. “I know it will be difficult from here [semi-finals] but am confident that I can come up with an even better performance.”
Services’s three-time National champion Madan Lal looks destined for a bout with Bidhuri after he put an end to the impressive run of Laldingliana. Dinesh’s (69kg) fortitude and fitness stood out yet again during his win by unanimous decision against Chander Bahadur Tamang of Karnataka.
....more to follow
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