Young Akash Sangwan stunned Ankush Dahiya 3-2 in a neck-and-neck contest to advance to the 63kg final of the National boxing championships, at the Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technology, here on Wednesday.
In a thrilling semifinal bout, Services’ Akash rode on his raw power to get past Dahiya, a silver medallist in 60kg last year, and set up a title clash with World Championships bronze medallist Shiva Thapa. Southpaw Akash grabbed early advantage by landing some hard punches on Ankush and dominating the first round.
Changed strategy, but...
Ankush, a Railways boxer with good all-round game, reworked his strategy to deliver some body shots while moving in and out, but got a few on his face. Though he improved his foot work and tackled Akash better in the final round, it was not enough.
Railways lodged a protest against the decision but it was rejected following the due procedure.
Vinod Tanwar of Services pipped Sonu Dhull of Railways 3-2 in a closely-fought 49kg duel between two talented southpaws.
Sonu, a technically-sound pugilist, got carried away in the opening round and received some lusty punches from Vinod. Dhull recovered by landing some clear shots from a distance, but could not do enough to stop the compact and quick-punching Vinod.
Olympian Sumit Sangwan survived two standing counts in the first round to walk away with a 4-1 verdict against Services’ Gaurav Chauhan in a 91kg bout that featured exchange of heavy blows.
Other results (semifinals):49kg: Ajay Pendor (Mah) bt Krushanvir Singh (D&D) RSC-R3; 52kg: Ashish Insha (RSPB) bt Manjeet Shaw (Ben) 4-1; P.L. Prasad (SSCB) bt Sparash Kumar (Pun) 5-0; 57kg: Mohd. Hussamuddin (SSCB) bt Roshan Sain (Raj) 5-0; Sachin Siwach (RSPB) bt Sagar Chand (Pun) 5-0; 60kg: Varinder Singh (RSPB) bt Vijay Kumar (Pun) 5-0; V. Durga Rao (SSCB) w.o. Jitender Thakur (HP).
63kg: Shiva Thapa (Asm) bt Abhishek Yadav (UP) 5-0; 69kg: Naveen Boora (SSCB) bt Amit Kumar (D&D) 5-0; Jayesh Desai (Guj) bt Parmod Kumar (AIP) 3-2; 75kg: Ankit Khatana (Har) bt Pankaj Chauhan (Chd) 5-0; Rohit Tokas (RSPB) bt Rohit (AIP) 5-0; 81kg: Arshdeep Singh (Pun) bt Saurabh Lenekar (Mah) 5-0; Sachin Kumar (SSCB) bt Rahul (Del) 5-0; 91kg: Naman Tanwar (RSPB) bt Kapil Pokhariya (Utk) 5-0; +91kg: Narender (SSCB) bt Naveen (Har) 5-0; Krishna Sharma (AIP) bt Ankit (Del) 5-0 .
