Visakhapatnam: Top Indian boxers Shiva Thapa and Manoj Kumar sealed their berth in the quarter-finals with comprehensive wins, thrashing opponents with ease in their pre-quarterfinal bouts of the Second Elite Men’s National Boxing Championships on Friday.
Three times Asian champion Shiva, who won the elusive gold in the previous edition of the Championships representing state Assam, defeated Chattisgarh’s Suraj Singh to make the knock-out stage of the lightweight (60kg) category and is the favourite to win it once again.
2010 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Manoj Kumar who is representing Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) this year also registered a win, defeating Mizoram’s Anthony Lalduhawma in the welterweight (69kg) division. Having sailed into the quarter-finals, the defending champion looks well on course to win another gold this year.
“He is a good boxer and it was a tough fight. I took some time to understand his style. Once I got hang of it, I maintained a safe distance as he was relentlessly throwing punches at me,” said Manoj after putting up another dominating performance in a 5-0 win.
Among the other RSPB boxers Mandeep Jangra, K. Shyam Kumar and Rohit Tokas all won their respective matches to enter the quarter-finals. While Mandeep (75kg) defeated Robin Soni Madhya Pradesh, Shyam Kumar and Rohit had little difficulty in knocking out Punjab’s Himanshu Sharma and Maharashtra’s Kaalicharan respectively.
However, it was the end for Commonwealth Games silver medalist L. Devendro Singh who was was forced to give a walkover after being declared medically unfit prior to the match against Jharkhand’s Vijay Arora in the flyweight (52kg) category pre-quarterfinal bout. It came as huge blow to the pocket-sized dynamo who was aiming for the gold this year, having fallen a step short into the previous edition. His disqualification is also a huge loss for Manipur, as Devendro was one of the favourites to win gold in the flyweight category.