Assam’s Shiva Thapa storms into finals of boxing nationals

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• Oct 2, 2021 | moderator

BELLARY (Karnataka): Five-time Asian Championships medalist Shiva Thapa entered the finals of the 5th men's Boxing Nationals at the Inspire Institute of Sports here on Monday.

The World Championships bronze medalist Thapa recorded a dominating victory against Uttar Pradesh’s Abhishek Yadav by a unanimous margin in the 63.5 kg category.

The experienced Assam pugilist Thapa will square off with Services Sports Control Board’s (SSCB) Dalveer in the final.

The final match will be played on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the current Asian champion Sanjeet, representing SSCB, proved too strong for his opponent Harsh Kaushik from Delhi as he registered a convincing 5-0 win in the 92 kg semi-final.

Sanjeet will take on Haryana’s Naveen Kumar in the final. Naveen blanked Punjab’s Raghav Chaudhary.

Another SSCB boxer Hussamuddin, however, faced a tough challenge from the in-form Haryana youngster Sachin.

The defending champion Hussamuddin had to work hard before completing a 4-1 win in an intense 57 kg semi-final bout.

He will fight against Delhi’s Rohit Mor in the gold medal match.

Deepak (51kg), Akash (54kg), Etash Khan Muhammed (57kg), Dalveer Singh Tomar (63.5kg), Akash (67kg), Sumit (75kg), Sachin Kumar (80kg), Lakshya (86kg) and Narender (+92kg) were the other SSCB boxers to advance into the finals.

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Chandigarh’s Kuldeep Kumar (48kg) and Sagar (+92kg) also made their way into the finals with equally dominant victories.

While Kuldeep Kumar outperformed Uttar Pradesh’s Ravi Kumar with a unanimous margin, Sagar too comfortably defeated Maharashtra’s Reynold Joseph by RSC verdict.

For Karnataka, Nishant Dev booked a final berth in the 71kg category. He got the better of Haryana’s Yashpal with an easy 5-0 win.