National Boxing Championships: Shiva Thapa, Sanjeet, Deepak Kumar win gold, book spots for Worlds

Bellary: Rohit Mor stunned defending champion Mohammad Hussamuddin but the accomplished duo of Shiva Thapa and Sanjeet lived up to expectations by clinching gold medals in their respective weight categories at the Men’s National Boxing Championships on Tuesday. Deepak Kumar (51kg), Akash (54kg), Akash (67), Sumit (75kg), Sachin Kumar (80kg), Lakshya (86kg) and Narender (+92kg) also secured gold medals by winning their respective final bouts at the Inspire Institute of Sports. All of them are from Services team. All the gold medal winners of the National Championships will represent India at the World Championships scheduled in Belgrade, Serbia from 24 October to 6 November. All of them, except Shiva, will be competing in their maiden world championships. Delhi boxer Mor dished out a dominating 5-0 win over Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Hussamuddin, one of the strong contenders for the title in the 57kg. Reigning Asian champion Sanjeet, also representing Services, outclassed Haryana’s Naveen Kumar by unanimous decision. Seasoned boxer Shiva Thapa of Assam, a bronze medallist at the 2015 world championships and also a five-time Asian medallist, successfully defended his title as he recorded an easy 5-0 win over Dalveer Singh Tomar of Services in the 63.5kg final. Karnataka’s Nishant Dev also continued his brilliant run at the championships. He blanked Amit Kumar of Daman, Diu & Nagar Haveli to win the 71kg title. Deepak, an Asian championships silver medallist, was adjudged best boxer of the championships for his impressive performance. Services defended their team championship title as they won 12 medals — 8 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. Railway (2 gold, 2 bronze and 3 silver) and Delhi (1 gold, 4 bronze) claimed the second and third position respectively. For Railways, Varinder Singh (60kg) and Govind Sahani (48kg) claimed gold medals with identical unanimous victories. While the 2021 Asian Championships bronze medallist Varinder defeated Services’ Etash Khan Muhammed, Govind got the better of Chandigarh’s Kuldeep Kumar. The Championships, which returned after a gap of one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saw the participation of 35 States/UT units and Boards and close to 400 boxers. While the gold and silver medallists from each category of the Championships will also get direct entry into the national coaching camp, the two bronze medallists will take part in the selection trials where they will compete alongside the boxers representing the second team of top-3 teams of the last National Championships — Services, Railways and Haryana. The announcement of the remaining two names for the national camp will be made on 24 September on the basis of the results of the selection trials.