World Champion Gaurav Bidhuri cruises into semis in third Elite Men Boxing National Championships in Pune

New Delhi: Buoyed by solid local support, Dalvir Tomar (64 kg) took as little time as possible when he knocked Rohit Tokas of Railways in the third Elite Men Boxing National Championships at the AIS rings in Pune on Tuesday.

Touted as a top-billed bout in the light welter category on right one, the highly-rated Dalvir rattled Rohit who was left to gasping for breath as the Services pugilist completed the task to make the quarterfinal grade. Trading combination punches on Rohit with a sound technique, Dalvir not only evaded his opponent nicely but landed a couple of straight ones which forced the Railways boxer on his knees.

As if this was not enough, the CWG silver medallist Manish Kaushik captivated the audience with super display of power in the 60 kg encounter as he added more teeth to his punches in the lightweight class (60 kg) when he downed Vijay Kumar of Punjab, winning on points (5:0) to enter the quarterfinals. Luckily, the Punjab boxer avoided getting knocked out.

On a day when the Services, Railways, Punjab and Haryana barely put a wrong foot in the pre-quarterfinals against their lesser-known opponents, they were blatant and severe to make it to the quarterfinal rounds.

Manjeet Singh from the Services won on points (5:0) when he beat Manipur’s Bonel Singh in middle weight category (75 kg) to move into the quarterfinals, while Sanjeet Singh scored a KO (second round) decision over Arunachal Pradesh’s Komu Pem Khandu even as Railways’s Gaurav Bidhuri won his bout against Pondicherry's V BharanyPrayag; Chauhan scored 4:1 verdicts over Karan of Tripura in the same weight class. Earlier, Amit Khichar scored a second round KO against Ajay Singh Kanyal of Uttarakhand.

In another knockout in light heavy (81 kg), Punjab’s Gurpreet Singh took less than two minutes to send Mrunal Bhosale of Maharashtra to the ropes for a first round knockout. Haryana’s Sanjay scored 5:0 over Deepak Sunar of Nagaland while Services’ Gagan Narwal scored a split verdict (3:2) over his Railways rival, Manish Panwar, a former youth champion.

Yet another split verdict came in the bout between Jatinder of Himachal and Sandeep Malik of All India Police which the latter won 3:2. The bout saw quality punches being traded from both the red and blue corners, but the AIP pugilist had a definite edge in the third could which ultimately clinched the verdict in his favour.

The day saw as many as 64 bouts with the fancied boxers moving into the last eight stages without a whimper.