Boxer Kranthi wins, catches coach's eye at national meet
Assam's Shiva Thapa stayed on track to win his second consecutive gold at the National Championship.
Visakhapatnam: Not only top boxers but the budding ones too came good on the second day of the 2nd Elite Men’s National Boxing Championship at the Swarna Bharathi Stadium here on Wednesday. Assam’s Shiva Thapa stayed on track to win his second consecutive gold at the National Championship.
Shiva, a former World Championships bronze-winner and three-time Asian Championships medallist, sailed past Tripura’ Naveen Kumar in his opening bout of the lightweight (60kg) category. Meanwhile, former World Youth Boxing Champion L. Devendro Singh from Manipur emerge victorious with a 5-0 victory against Arunachal’s Kumar Beyong.
In another encounter, Andhra Pradesh’s K. Kranthi, who caught the eye of the national coach Santiago Nieva, had to dig deep to emerge victorious against Maharashtra’s Shivaji More as both fought tooth and nail. As the home crowd cheered on Kranthi’s heroics, his opponent didn’t let that affect his confidence. More threw a lot of punches at Kranthi but an uppercut in the second round really shook the local lad and the contest was briefly halted by the referee.
It all went down to the third and final round of the clash and both players realised the importance of the round. Both the players went all guns blazing but it was Kranthi who came out on top via split decision and a scoreline of 3-2.
“I have been practising very hard for this tournament and I feel I can win a gold in my weight category going further into the competition,” an elated Kranthi said after his first win of the Championship.
The coach of the senior national team also agrees to that and said, “All boxers I have seen till now have been great but it is too early to say who will earn a call-up to the national team. However, a local boy called Kranthi has caught my eye,” he said.
The biggest domestic tournament in Boxing has a formidable field of 309 pugilists and will surely see a few come up the ranks as they rub shoulders with the country’s top placed boxers such as Manipur’s L. Devendro Singh, Manoj Kumar, among others.
Selected Results
49kg: B. Deepak (TEL) bt Rishi Kumar (RAJ) 5-0.
60kg: N. Lalith Kishore (TEL) bt Raman Sah (JHA) 3-2.
Heavyweight: D. Dharma Raju (TEL) bt Suraj Vidhate (MAH).