Date:11/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/11/stories/2008091161332100.htm

Sport - Boxing

Som Bahadur wins controversial bout

Y. B. Sarangi

BATHINDA: In a dramatic turn of events, a trailing Som Bahadur Pun was declared winner in a light welterweight category quarterfinal bout against Manoj Kumar in the 55th National boxing championship here on Wednesday.

Services man Som Bahadur was trailing 16-21 in the fourth round with 30 seconds to go when referee G. Nagpurwala issued a third warning to Railways pugilist Manoj for “head-butting” and subsequently disqualified him.

Ugly scenes

This enraged the whole Railways team and many of its members rushed to the centre of the ring and staged a protest. Manoj sat on the floor of the ring and refused to move despite requests from the referee and ring officials.

A furious Railways coach Jaidev Bisht criticized the decision while manager Sushil Kumar Sharma lodged a protest on behalf of the team.

Nagpurwala, incidentally, has got a reputation as one of the best referees in the country and has wide international experience.

Eventful start

The bout was eventful right from the start. Som Bahadur led 3-2 after the first round. But Manoj relied on straight punches to his opponent’s body and fought back to surge ahead 11-5.

In the third round, the Railways boxer increased his points despite giving away four penalty points after being warned twice by the referee and led 18-14 before the final round.

The results (quarterfinals): 48 kg: Manwar Hussain (RSPB) bt Bishwajit Nandal (AR) on points, Vipin Kumar (UTK) bt Amit Kumar (Har) 18-9, Amandeep Singh (Pun) bt Umesh Yadav (MP) 23-5, Sanjay Kolte (SSCB) bt Mahmai (Kar) 23-12.

54 kg: S.K. Thapa (AIP) bt Hitesh Kumar Sahu (Cht) 17-9, Torak Kharapan (Meg) w/o. Saubam Santosh (Jha) , N. Santosh Kumar (AP) bt Subash Debnath (WB) 16-12, S. Suresh Singh (CISF) bt P. Narjeet Singh (SSCB) 16-12.

57 kg: P.C. Chhuanvawra (Miz) bt Dinesh Bisht (Utk) 16-11, M.B. Pagare (Mah) bt Imran Khan (UP) 13-10, Akshay Kumar (Del) bt Ganesh Rana (Asm) disqualified R-4, Chhotelal Yadav (SSCB) bt Diwakar Prasad (RSPB) 22-11.

60 kg: Sanjay Tokas (Del) Shananshar Ulhak (MP) 22-19, Amandeep Singh (Pun) bt Govind Thapa (Asm) 11-11 countback 23-22, Vikash Malik (RSPB) bt Somvir (Chd) 10-0, Rakesh Kalaskar (SSCB) bt Mahesh Singh (RSPB) 15-1.

64 kg: S.B. Tamang (AR) bt Sandeep (Har) on points, Som Bahadur Pun (SSCB) bt Manoj Kumar (RSPB) disqualified, Vijay Thapa (Meg) bt Vinod Kumar (J and K) 24-9, S. Prem Kumar (Kar) bt Devansh K. (UP) 21-8.

69 kg: Jagat (AIP) bt Vijay (Har) 25-24, Dilbagh Singh (RSPB) bt Dharminder (Tri) RSC-OS, Ajit Pal Singh (Jha) bt Venkatesh (Kar) disqualified, Jai Singh Patil (SSCB) bt J.H. Nongrum (Meg) RSC-OS.

81 kg: Jasveer Singh (RSPB) bt Gurprem Singh (Jha) RSC-OC R-3, Sunil Ola (MP) bt Vikash Singh (Tri) 19-14, Mahindra Thapa (SSCB) bt Pramod Kumar (Har) 14-6, Parminder Singh (Pun) bt Digvijay Mehta (HP) 17-17 countback.

91 kg: Vinod Kumar (Miz) bt Anup Dayanand (Mah) RSC-OS, Narendra (Del) bt Yogesh Kumar (AIP) RSC-OC, Amandeep Singh (Jha) bt Sandeep Rathi (Skm) 17-13, Manpreet Singh (SSCB) bt Sukhwinder (RSPB) 27-12.

+91 kg: Rajendrapal Singh (WB) bt Anand Singh (CISF) 8-3, Baljeet (Chd) bt Arun Kumar (Har) 26-12, Ram Singh (Pun) bt Narendra Yadav (AP) 13-2, Paramjeet Samota (RSPB) bt Praveen Kumar (Del) 15-7.