The writing was on the wall that National champion Meena Kumari of Kerala would have it easy against Mizoram’s Kross Harangaih Sangi. She hammered the latter 16-3 in the opening round of the women’s lightweight 57-60kg class in the boxing events which commenced here on Friday.
The State’s Centre of Excellence star, who had impressed World champion Sarita Devi as a sparring partner, started cautiously but picked up pace midway through to register an easy win. Only in the third round did Kross show signs of stiff resistance.
About 200 pugilists from 27 States have confirmed participation but most international stars stayed out fearing Boxing India’s expulsion or suspension threat.
Also, the boxers and coaches cried foul over the old scoring system and the use of an Indian ring. “It would be better if scoring is done manually with new rules. The old scoring system can always go wrong,” said Dronacharya D. Chandralal, Kerala’s coach.
No practice rings Also the teams did not have the practice rings. It was said that four rings from Germany (for competition and training) would be used for the event. Surprisingly, it was conducted on only one and the teams said it was Indian and not imported.
“Four rings have already reached the city but we could use only one as there was only a limited space in the arena,” said Asit Banerjee, Director of boxing competition. The boxers were found practising outside the stadia hoping something would be done the next couple of days.
Mr. Banerjee agreed that the rings are from India. “These are competition rings and approved by AIBA.”
The participants were unhappy over various issues but Mr. Banerjee, despite the uncertainty that prevailed for some time over the conduct of the show, was pleased to have presented a grand boxing event to Kerala. The results:
Men: Fly (52kg): Jatinder Singh (Pun) bt Sharad Chandra (UP) 32-7, Imtizulu (Nag) bt Kumar Beyong (Aru) 16-15. Bantam (56kg): Vipin Kumar (WB) bt G. Naresh Goud (Tel) 13-1, Zonun Tluanga (Miz) bt Venkata Nagarjuna (AP) 16-12. Light (60kg): Kulvinder (Ker) w/o Lalnunhlua (Miz); Light-welter (64kg): Vijaya Kumar w/o Vijender (Raj); Welter (69kg): Manish Vikey (MP) bt B. Nandan (Kar) 21-3. Heavy (91kg): Hari Singh (MP) bt Digvijay Singh (HP) 17-16.
Women:Fly (48-51kg): B. Jyoti (Guj) bt Md. Joura Bee (Tel) 13-2; Dolly Singh (WB) bt Pooja Tokas (Del) 8-8. Light (57-60): Ankita Gayrta (MP) bt Sunita Rani (Har) 12-8; M. Meena Kumari (Ker) bt Kross Harangaih Sangi (Miz) 16-3; Priyanka Thakur (Pun) bt Shivani Bharti (Bih) 6-0; Geeta (Del) bt R. Muthulakshmi (TN) 17-4; Kamla Bisht (Utr) bt Sonia (UP) 15-8; Anjema Khakalary (Aru) bt Muskan (Tri) 15-7.
