Date:07/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/07/stories/2008090754971700.htm

Sport - Boxing

Sunil too good for Angao

Y. B. Sarangi

BATHINDA: Riding on his raw aggression, Commonwealth Championship gold medallist Sunil Kumar of Haryana out-punched Naorem Angao of Border Security Force in the flyweight category to advance to the second round of the 55th Senior National boxing championship at the Giani Zail Singh Stadium here on Saturday.

In the fourth bout of the day, Sunil, who did not need to sport a guard, unleashed a flurry of punches that left the army man clueless and exhausted. The referee had to stop the contest in the third round.

Cautious approach

The going was, however, tough in the first round for Sunil as Angao adopted a cautious approach and tried to punch strategically while keeping up a solid defence. However, the Haryana pugilist came up with some lightning straight punches to dominate the next two rounds.

In a 48 kg category contest, Kerala’s S. Venkata Ramana used his long arms to land straight punches on his opponent Khemanand of Central Industrial Security Force and emerge winner by an 8-3 margin.

In other flyweight bouts, Himanshu Sahu of Steel Plant Sports Board thrashed Krishna Barua of Meghalaya 18-8

On inaugural day of the championship, Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal presented cash awards to Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh, quarterfinalist Jitender Kumar for their brilliant performance in the Beijing Games. Chief National coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu was also honoured. Vijender and Sandhu were given Rs 11 lakh each while Jitender was handed Rs 5 lakh.

The results:

48 kg: M. Nasir Qurashi (UP) bt Sunny (HP) RSC-OS 2nd round, Himnashu Sahu (SPSB) bt Krishna Barua (Meghalaya) 18-8, S. Venkata Ramana (Kerala) bt Khemanada (CISF) 8-3; 51 kg: Sunil Kumar (Haryana) bt Naorem Angao (BSF) RSC-OS 3rd round, Abhishek Shah (UP) bt Amit Bisht (Rajasthan) 25-4; 54 kg: Kulwinder Singh (Punjab) bt Rahul Singh (Delhi) 13-11, S. Suresh Singh (CISF) bt Surendra Gund (Rajasthan) 18-1; 57 kg: Chhotelal Yadav (SSCB) bt Indra (BDR, Sikkkim) 21-1, Mann Bahadur Kumar (Arunchal Pradesh) bt Meghnad Koch (CISF) 3-0; 69 kg: Jitendra Maan (Delhi) bt Pradeep Kumar (Madhya Pradesh) 18-5, Anil Kumar Burman (WB) bt Yogesh S. Nishad (Maharashtra) 14-7.