Thokchom Nanao Singh gave a fine display of boxing skills as he outpointed Vinod Kumar of Steel Plants 19-9 in the quarterfinals of the light flyweight category in the Sahara 59th senior National boxing championship for men here on Friday.
The 21-year-old Nanao Singh showed just why he is considered one of India’s best boxers.
His footwork, body feints, punching power and accuracy were outstanding. However, his rival — the gutsy Vinod Kumar of Steel Plants — did manage to put up a fairly good defence or the margin of victory would have been much higher.
In a bantamweight quarterfinal, Sauban Santosh of Manipur pulled off the upset of the day when he outpointed the fancied Chote Lal Yadav of Services.
Yadav seemed off colour and could not reproduce his form from earlier bouts. Santosh knowing that he was the underdog, went flat out from the word go and pegged back Chote Lal who failed to come up with effective counter punches.
In a welterweight quarterfinal Dilbag Singh ended the hopes of local favourite K. Surender. The 23-year-old AP lad tried hard egged on by vociferous support from his numerous fans. But he was no match for the skill and experience of Dilbag. The latter confidently kept his guard low and danced away from the AP boxer’s attempts to land straight lefts. But when an opening presented itself Dilbag was quick to capitalise and score points.
Dilbag led 5-1 at the end of a relatively quiet first round which increased to 12-2 at the end of the second round. In the third round Dilbag stepped up the pace further which left the flagging Surender all at sea. Eventually Dilbag raced away to a 24-6 victory.
The results (quarterfinals):
Light flyweight (46-49 kgs): Pankaj Saini (Pun) bt K. Sagar (AP) 20-13; T. Nanao Singh (SSCB) bt Vinod Kumar (SPSB) 19-9; Amarjeet Singh (Man) bt Naveen Kumar (Har) 7-5; Amandeep (RSPB) bt Salman Anwar (Mah) 28-18.
Flyweight (52 kgs): Santosh Fakirapa (Goa) bt Labir Singh (AIP) 15-10; Madan Lal (SSCB) bt J. Bhaskar (SPSB) 18-12; Mahimai Nathar (Kar) bt Sandeep 13-13 (on countback); G. Bidhuri (Del) bt Balakrishna (AP) 11-7.
Banatmweight (56 kgs): Ashish (UP) bt Kulwinder Singh (Pun) 19-14; Sauban Santosh (Man) bt Chote Lal (SSCB) 17-11; Ajay Kumar (Har) bt Lal Nunhilva (Miz) 13-4; V.D. Rao (AP) bt Yudhveer (MP) 21-16.
Lightweight (60 kgs): Anil Kumar (Bih) bt Mahesh Singh (UP) 15-13; Neeraj Goyat (Tri) bt Surinder Singh (SSCB) 22-17; Sandeep Kumar (Har) bt Vikas (J and K) 18-13; Vikash (RSPB) bt Rohit Tokas (Del) 19-16.
Light welterweight (64 kgs): Aditya Mane (Mah) bt Ankit (HP) 12-12 (on countback); Mandeep (RSPB) bt Devadarshan (Har) 10-9; Nerender Singh (Pun) bt Kulvinder (Ker) 7-3; Manish Pawar (Del) bt A. Ahmed (Cht) 24-14.
Welterweight (69 kgs): Dilbag Singh (RSPB) bt K. Surender (AP) 24-6.
