The Hindu : Indian Army wins team championship

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 18, 2002

Sport

Sport - Boxing

Indian Army wins team championship
By Our Special Correspondent

The Indian Army team which won the team championship in the seventh BSNL Federation Cup boxing championship in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI, MARCH 17. The Indian Army contingent landed here at the last moment. But that did not affect the team's performance as it walked away with the team championship, collecting five gold medals and scoring 33 points, in the seventh BSNL Federation Cup boxing championship, hosted by the Madras Friends Boxing Academy at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Sunday.

Normally, the title race is between the Army and Railways in any major competition. As Southern Railway had decided to pull out from this championship it was left to Andhra to take up the challenge. Andhra finished runner-up with 25 points and Assam Rifles third with 17 points.

At one stage, both Indian Army and Andhra were tied with three gold medals each, but the former surged ahead when the short and tenacious G. Periyar, who was knocked down, fought his way to the gold medal against the taller Mohammed Rasheed. This victory tilted the scale in favour of the Army squad that came here without the Navy and Air Force boxers. Still it turned out to be a strong squad.

The Andhra pugilists, coached by former National trainer Chiranjeevi, made it an interesting final day. In fact, Andhra had an head start as J. Sandeep Kumar in the light fly class and Sundai Raju in the flyweight category wrapped up their bouts with ease. While Sandeep recorded a 4-1 verdict, Raju got an unanimous 5-0 decision.

Sandeep managed with his hit and run tactics and Kaleem Ahmed of Tamil Nadu found the going tough as he was a bit slow. But Raju had to face a more serious problem as his rival S.K. Thappa of Assam Rifles attacked like a street fighter. However, Raju slowly got into his groove with a jab here and a punch there.

Prakash Gurung of Army was confident and moved in for the kill at will. Shyam Babu Pal of CISF did not have the defence to stop him in the bantam final.

There was so much to cheer for the local crowd as D. Srinivasan of Tamil Nadu, who received the best boxer award, the Abhay Singh Chautala Trophy, went on a rampage against Mohan Singh of Assam Rifles. The 10th standard student of Little Flower and SAI boxer, Srinivasan got his second gold when he brought down Mohan in the fourth round with a not so strong upper cut. He had earlier won the Southern India championship gold. Mohan Singh got up to continue but Srinivasan was already jumping with joy. It was an unanimous 5-0 decision in his favour in the feather weight. This was the lone gold for Tamil Nadu.

Chananda Kuttappa hardly gave any chance for Pravin Shirodkar of Goa to hit him. The armyman was so nimble-footed that he was moving in and out at will. He too impressed all the judges for a 5-0 win in the lightweight final.

Santosh Kumar of Army, who received the Sivanthi Adityan Trophy for being the best boxer in heavy weights, mauled Santosh Avhad of Maharashtra as the bout was stopped by the referee because of injury. Avhad did not have a clue about what was coming in the lightwelter class. Similarly, Ranjit Emani of Andhra shook his rival with a straight right and the referee saved Praveen Sharma of Haryana from further blows in the welter section.

G. Periyar of Army came into an upper cut and was down on the canvas in the first round itself. But he rallied brilliantly in the other rounds with sharp one-two punches to beat Rasheed of Andhra in the light middle.

The Haryana coach threw in the towel to save his boxer Vivek Kumar from Shashikumar Thappa of Assam Rifles in the third round of the middleweight final. Harijinder Singh of Army was clumsy in the beginning. Still he manged to get the better of Anand Singh of CISF, who did not use his skill properly. He troubled Harjinder with some upper cuts. But he lacked real punch to bring him down in the light heavy section.

Mr. Thambidurai, State Education Minister, distributed the prizes.

The results (all finals):

Lt. fly: Kaleem Ahmed (TN-G) lost to J. Sandeep Kumar (AP) 4-1. Fly: Sundai Raju (AP) beat S.K. Thappa (AR) 5-0. Bantam: Shyam Babu Pal (CISF) lost to Prakash Gurung (Army) 4-1. Feather: D. Srinivasan (TN-G) beat Mohan Singh (AR) 5-0. Light: Chananda Kuttapa (Army) beat Pravin Shirodkar (Goa) 5-0. Lt. welter: Santosh Kumar (Army) beat Santosh Avhad (Maha) RSC IV round. Welter: Praveen Sharma (Har) lost to E. Ranjit Emani (AP) RSC IV round. Lt. middle: Md. Rasheed (AP) lost to G. Periyar (Army) 4-1. Middle: Vivek Kumar (Har) lost to Sashikumar Thappa (AR) retd. II round. Lt. heavy: Harjinder Singh (Army) beat Anand Singh (CISF) 5-0. lSaturday's results:

Lt. middle: S. Mohammed Rasheed (AP) bt Surender Singh (AR); Pramanand Goankar (Goa) lost to G. Periyar (Services) 1-4.

Middle: Vivek Kumar (Har) bt Akbar Padha (TN-Y) 3-2; Sashi Kumar Thappa (AR) bt T. Anantha Jebaraj (AP) knockout 2nd round.

Lt. heavy: Harjinder Singh (Services) bt Ravi Gill (Har) RSC, 4th round; Ravinder Phogat (AP) lost to Anand Singh (CISF) 0-5.

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