Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Naman Tanwar was among the prominent names who made a winning start on the second day of 4th Elite National Championships at the Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technology on Saturday.
Last year’s bronze medal winner Naman (91kg), representing Railways, showed superb form and fitness to notch a 5-0 win against Ashish Bhandor of Himachal Pradesh. Ashish was no match for his opponent as Naman landed a flurry of accurate punches on his opponent.
2019 President’s cup gold medallist Neeraj Swami (49 kg) also began his campaign in dominant fashion against Meghalaya’s Phiban Sohtun. The diminutive boxer from Delhi attacked from the beginning and landed some mighty blows on his opponents face which forced the referee to stop the contest in the first round.
Also making a winning start was 2019 India Open silver medallist Sumit Sangwan (91 kg) defeated Gujarat’s Rizwan Ahmed comfortably as the latter couldn’t deal with the power punches of the experienced boxer and the bout had to be stopped in the first round itself.
Chandigarh’s Vipin Kumar (49kg) and Punjab’s Shiv Kant played a highly entertaining bout as both the boxers traded punches and displayed great attacking prowess but the former got the judges’ nod at the end with a 3-2 split decision.
Assam’s Irfan Khan blanked Kerala’s Athul Raj 5-0 in the light flyweight category. After playing cautiously in the first round and gauging the opponent’s strategy, Irfan showed quick movement and footwork to control the bout in the last two rounds to pocket the match.
The pugilists will compete in all the ten weight categories- 49kg, 52kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75 kg, 81kg, 91kg and +91kg as teams from Ladakh and Andaman & Nicobar will participate for the first time, thereby validating Boxing Federation of India (BFI)’s efforts to promote boxing across every corner of the country.