Shiva, Devendro, Manoj storm into last 8

By our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 10:  Shiva Thapa (60kg) and Laishram Devendro Singh (52kg) moved into the quarter fils registering contrasting victories against their opponent in the Senior Men’s Boxing tiol Championship at the Karmabir bin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor stadium here today.

Manoj Kumar (69kg), a gold medalist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and former Asian Games silver medalist Dinesh Kumar (91kg) also advanced into the next round winning their respective bouts.

There was good turnout at the Karmabir bin Chandra Bordoloi Indoor stadium for Shiva’s bout and the crowds witnessed one of the good contests of the competition. Local hero overcame a stiff fight from Services Sports Control Board’s (SSCB) Manish to win 4–1 by a split decision.

Talking to the media persons just after his bout Shiva today admitted that his opponent was technically very sound and displayed a great fight. “However the strategy, I chalked out against him, worked nicely.”

Shiva also added that he is now focused on gold medal only at the ongoing tiols.

Meanwhile Manoj, who is representing All India Police, defeated Meghalaya’s Tilok Budha 5–0 in a unimous decision. His teammate Dinesh Kumar too didn’t need to work hard to beat his opponent as referee stopped the contest in his favour within the first few minutes of his Heavyweight (91kg) category bout against Rajasthan’s Tanish.

Manipur’s L Devendro Singh also outplayed his opponent Arvind in the Flyweight (52kg) category by 5–0 in a unimous decision.

Among others in Welter (69kg) category, Andy Chauha of Mizoram, Ankush Hudda of Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir’s Ashish also reached the quarterfils with contrasting wins in their respective bouts today.

In middle (75kg) category, Ashish of Himachal Pradesh, Aditya Mann of Harya and Venhlimpuia of Mizoram made it to the fil eight, while RSPB’s Manish Panwar, Vivek of Kartaka, SSCB’s Jaiswal Devanshu and Jay Saxse of Uttarakhand reached the quarters in light heavy (81kg) weight.

In heavy (91kg) weight, Punjab’s KP Singh and Himachal Pradesh’s Virender Kumar and Delhi boxer Abhishak also booked berth in the quarters.

In light fly weight, Akshay of Maharashtra, Shayam Kumar of RSPB and Neeraj of Delhi reached the quarters, while Harya’s Niraj, Akash Singh of Chattisgarh and Ata Chopre of Maharashtra entered the last eight in fly (52kg) division. Delhi boxer Buntee Singh, SSCB’s Md Hussamuddin, Sheran Sandhu of Uttarakhand and Shashi Kant of Maharashtra also won their respective bouts to reach the next stage in bantam (56kg) weight.

In Super heavy (+91kg), Ajit Negi of Uttarakhand, Satish Kumar of SSCB, Akasha of Delhi and Vekuzo of galand had a good day in office as all of them entered into the quarter fils today.