Boxing: Ramanand plays his part to perfection

By Rakesh Rao

PATIALA, NOV. 28. P. Ramanand kept his date with a hat-trick of gold medals in the National Games while playing his part to perfection as Services claimed the overall team honours in men's boxing at the gymnasium hall, Polo ground, here on Wednesday.

Services claimed four golds, one silver and five bronze medals to retain the championship. Punjab, joint-third in the previous edition, moved to the second spot with three golds, two silver and one bronze. Haryana came a creditable third with three golds and a bronze.

Winner of the bantam weight in Bangalore in 1997 and feather weight in the following edition of the Games at Imphal in 1999, Ramanand added the light weight title with a 15-6 points verdict against Manipur's S. Dhanbir.

Similarly, Punjab's Harpal Singh kept the super heavy gold with an easy second-round victory over Services' Jitender Kumar Singh.

The defeat of Jitender was the only defeat that the Services boxers suffered in five finals. Apart from Ramanand, those who lived up to the expectations of Services, were A. Lenlin Meitei (feather), Satish Ghangas (light middle) and Hardeep Singh (middle).

In fact, Hardeep, too, emerged an emphatic winner over Tamil Nadu's D. Prithvi Rajan. After receiving a severe punishment at the hands of Hardeep, Rajan sprained his wrist and the doctor did not allow him to continue and thus ended this mismatch in the first round itself.

Earlier, Andhra Pradesh's H. Srinivas Rao scored a close 21-19 points verdict over Jharkand's Diwakar Prasad in Bantam weight to win this second gold in as many editions. At Imphal, Rao had claimed the light fly-weight title.

The results (finals):

Light-fly: Anurag (HP) bt Manoj Saha (Uttaranchal) on points; Fly: Bhim Singh (Pun) bt Girish Pawar (Mah) 22-6; Bantam: H. Srinivas Rao (AP) bt Diwakar Prasad (Jharkhand) 21-19; Feather: A. Lenlin Meitei (Services) bt P. Sreekanth (AP) 20-6; Light: P. Ramanand (Services) bt S. Dhanbir (Man) 15-6; Light welter: Subodh Kumar (Har) bt V. Harikishan (AP) 12-12 (53-40); Welter: Dilbagh Singh (Har) bt Anil Kumar (Del) RSC III; Light middle: Satish Ghangas (Services) bt Hemant Kumar (Pun) 5-4; Middle: Hardeep Singh (Services) bt D. Prithvi Rajan (Tamil Nadu) RSC I; Light heavy: Harpreet Singh (Pun) bt Raj Kumar (Mani) 10-1; Heavy: Jitender Kumar (Har) bt Balkar Singh (Pun) RSC III; Super Heavy: Harpal Singh (Pun) bt Jitender Kumar Singh (Services) RSC II.

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