Amandeep Singh of Railways squeaked into the final of the light flyweight category with a narrow 13-11 victory over a hard fighting Naveen Kumar of Haryana in the Sahara 59 senior National boxing championship for men here on Saturday.
Amandeep, who was a bronze medallist at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, is a joint favourite here and was expected to come up with a convincing victory. But he found the going tough against the plucky Naveen Kumar.
In the first round Amandeep showed good skills, ducking and weaving to avoid his opponent’s punches while managing to score with left and right combinations himself.
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But in the second and third rounds the script changed as the Haryana boxer attacked strongly and pegged back Amandeep. In the end it was a two point lead that Amandeep had established in the first round which saw him through.
In the other semifinal in this category an aggressive Nanao Singh (SSCB) relentlessly pursued his opponent Pankaj Saini of Punjab around the ring and chalked up a convincing 17-12 victory.
The clash between Nanao Singh and Amandeep in the final could turn out to be a feast for boxing fans here on Sunday.
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In the flyweight class, Karnataka’s stylish boxer Mahimai Nathar put up a pleasing display of body feints, crisp punching and footwork, but was unlucky to lose to Gaurav Bidhuri of Delhi. The latter made up for his lack of finesse and elegance with a brawling and aggressive style which got him a few more points than Mahimai.
Karnataka’s V. Durga Rao made up for Mahimai’s loss as he outpointed Ajay Kumar of Haryana 19-12 to enter the bantamweight final.
The results (all semifinals): Light flyweight (46-49 kgs): T. Nanao Singh (SSCB) bt Pankaj Saini (Pun) 17-12; Amandeep (RSPB) bt Naveen Kumar (Har) 13-11.
Flyweight (52 kgs): Madan Lal (SSCB) bt Santosh Fakirapa (Goa) 15-9; Gaurav Bidhuri (Del) bt Mahimai Nathar (Kar) 9-5.
Bantamweight (56 kgs): Sauban Santosh (Man) bt Ashish (UP) 15-6; V. Durga Rao (Kar) bt Ajay Kumar (Har) 19-12.
Lightweight (60 kgs): Neeraj Goyat (Tri) bt Anil Kvi (Bih) 11-10; Vikas (RSPB) bt Sandeep Kumar (Har) 22-12.
Light welterweight (64 kgs): Mandeep (RSPB) bt Aaditya Mane (Mah)16-7; Manish Pawar (Del) bt Narender Singh (Pun).
Welterweight (69 kgs): Naveen (Har) bt Vijay (Sik) 16-9; Dilbag Singh (RSPB) bt Manish Vikey (MP) RSC 3r round.
Middleweight (75 kgs): Sukhdeep Singh (Pun) bt Rajwinder Singh (Jhr) 14-7; Jaideep (SSCB) bt Kuldeep Singh (RSPB) 19-12.
Light heavyweight (81 kgs): Jagroop (Pun) bt Akash Kumar (Raj) 22-7; Rahul Kumar (MP) bt Harjinder (Man) RSC 2nd round.
Heavyweight (91 kgs): Manpreet Singh (SSCB) bt Jasveer Singh (RSPB) 15-12; Samrat (Mah) bt Hari Singh (Raj) RSC 3rd round.