Three-time Asian championship medallist, Shiva Thapa of Assam, out-punched crowd favourite V. Durga Rao of Andhra Pradesh on points (5-0) in the light weight category (60kg) quarterfinal of the second Elite men’s National boxing championship at the Swarna Bharati Indoor stadium here on Saturday.
Though Durga Rao was aggressive from the word go, it was increasingly becoming clear that he was throwing his punches more in the air and unleashing them when the seasoned opponent was actually swaying away to safety.
In fact, Durga Rao stayed put in the ring at the end even as the team officials protested against the jury’s verdict. And, interestingly, it was the AP boxer who was taken out in a ‘victory’ lap despite finishing a loser to the delight of his fans.
The results: Quarterfinals: Light fly: Pardeep Sharma bt Neeraj Swami 4-1; Nt Lalbiakkima bt Harish 5-0; Vipin Kumar bt Ujjwal Sharma 5-0; K. Shyam Kumar bt K. Kranthi 4-1.
Fly wt: Lal Dinmawia bt Bhojraj Singh 5-0; Chandan Das bt Bikash Kharkongor 5-0; Salman Shekh bt Vijay Jora 5-0; Vinod Tanwar bt Deepak 5-0.
Bantam wt: Varinder Singh bt Shashikant Yadav 5-0; Madan Lal bt M. Romajit 5-0; Sukraj Rai bt Taken Ehum 5-0; Santosh Harijan bt Zonuntluamga 5-0.
Lt wt (60kg): Buntee Singh bt Vanlalhriatkima 5-0; Shiva Thapa bt V. Durga Rao 5-0; Palwinder Singh bt Sunil Chouhan 3-2; Manish Kaushik bt Ch. Surendra Kumar Singh 5-0.
Lt welter (64kg): Jimil Thomas bt Anil Kumar 4-1; Basant Thapa bt Nandan 5-0; Ankit Khatana bt Bittoo Kanwal 4-1; Dheeraj Kumar bt Rohit Tokas 4-1.
Welter wt: Duryodhan Singh bt Shubham Singh 5-0; Manish Uikey bt Tilak Buddha 5-0; Manoj Kumar bt Pawan 5-0; Shubham bt Md. Ismaeel 3-2.
Middle wt: Parag Chauhan bt L. Amarjit Singh – RSC 3rd round; Mandeep Jhangra bt Harpal Singh 5-0; Anup Chhetri (Meg) bt Sumit Kumar 5-0; Vanhlimpuia bt Ashish Chodhary 4-1.
Lt heavy: Neel Kamal bt Ajay 5-0; Jagat Singh Belal bt Parkash Singh – RSC 2nd round; Brijesh Yadav (Raj) w\o M. Lalrinhiua; Manish Panwar bt Shankar 5-0.
