Boxing Elite National Championships: Shiva Thapa, Ashish Kumar ease into quarters, Dinesh Dagar eliminated

Baddi: Top boxers Shiva Thapa (63Kg) and Ashish Kumar (75Kg) entered the quarter-finals with easy victories on the fourth day of the 4th Elite Men’s National Championships on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_4980611” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Shiva Thapa. AFP[/caption] Shiva, who failed to make the World Championships team earlier this year, won his bout with a convincing 5-0 margin over Hitesh Kumar of Daman and Diu. He controlled the proceedings right from the beginning. Home favourite and Thailand Open gold medallist Ashish Kumar (75 kg) too had an easy 5-0 win over Rohan Khurpia of Madhya Pradesh. Services boxers Vinod Tanwar and Naveen Boora caused surprise upsets to oust Neeraj Swami (49 kg) and Dinesh Dagar (69 kg), a podium finisher from last year. The first bout of the day saw an upset as President’s Cup gold-medallist Neeraj lost 1-4 to Vinod. Delhi boxer Neeraj could not find his rhythm in the first round against his southpaw opponent from the Services. Vinod took advantage of his height and reach to take the experienced boxer off guard though Neeraj did manage to make a comeback in the second round with a series of hooks and punches. However, the action-packed bout ended with Vinod landing more clean punches in the last round and getting the judges’ nod. In the welterweight category, Naveen Boora of Services sprang a surprise as he defeated last year’s runner up Dinesh Dagar 5-0 in a one-sided bout. Dinesh, who won a gold in the President’s Cup, just could not cope with the flurry of hard punches from the youngster. Naveen dominated in all the three rounds to get a unanimous decision and pocket a comfortable win. Chandigarh’s Pankaj Chauhan (75kg) won his bout against Arunachal Pradesh’s Jomohtacho 5-0 in a dominant fashion and continued his winning streak. In 81 kg pre-quarters match, statemate Kuldeep Chauhan dominated over Chattisgarh’s Abhinav Nandy from the beginning and landed a flurry of punches forcing the referee to stop the contest in the first round. Services boxers had a field day as Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mohammad Hussamuddin (57kg) started on a slow note against Uttarakhand’s Pawan Gurung but eventually found his rhythm to win the bout 4-1. 2016 World Youth Boxing gold medallist Sachin Siwach (57kg), also playing for Services, continued his fine form as he defeated Appalaraju of Andhra Pradesh 5-0. In the middleweight category, Rohit Tokas from the Railways and Vanhlimpuia of Services had a close bout. Makran Cup Bronze medallist Rohit, who had moved up his weight from 64 kg to 75 kg, took time to adjust against his opponent’s strategy before winning the bout in a 4-1 split verdict.