National Boxing Championship: Shyam, Salman, Shiva, Manoj, Mandeep in semi-finals

Visakhapatnam: Eyeing for the medals at 2nd Elite National Boxing Championship here, the stalwarts of the sport event entered semifinals sailing past the decisive bouts in the quarterfinal rounds. Shyam Kumar representing Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) in the Light fly (46-49Kgs) took every opportunity to kick out the equivalent opponent Kranti of Andhra Pradesh.

In the first round, he was preserved to punch whereas in later stages he preferred to hooks and got the cake. In the another bout (52Kgs) Salman Shaikh of RSPB had the easy go against Vijay Jora of Jharkhand to hold off from semis by 5-0.The favourite star of the tourney Shiva Thapa of Assam had a good fight with his counterpart Durga Rao of Andhra Pradesh in the first two rounds. In the last round, he had opted for undercuts and finally beat him 5-0.

The crowd was very excited with the entry of Rohit Tokas of RSPB and Dheeraj of Services to catch the glimpse of punch. Never the less their tempo kept till the third round of the bout. Rohit Tokas was held in reserve away from semis by Dheeraj in 4-1 in the 64kg category. For Mandeep Jangra, it was an easy affair against Harpal Singh.