Visakhapatnam: Commonwealth Games gold medalist Manoj Kumar and Mandeep Jangra won gold medals after defeating their respective opponents at the 2nd Elite Men’s National Boxing Championships. But, World Championships Bronze medalist Shiva Thapa had to settle for a silver after suffering a shock loss against Manish Kaushik of Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) in the summit clash at Visakhapatnam on Monday.
The Haryana based Manoj (69kg), who represented Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) faced little difficulty in outclassing SSCB’s Duryodhan Singh despite the match going into the third round. Although Duryodhan put up a tough fight to win the second round after going down early in the first, he soon ran out of steam as Manoj won his second successive gold in the National Championships.
Defending champion Shiva Thapa, however could not continue his golden run, suffering a shock defeat at hands of SSCB’s Manish Kaushik in the finals of the lightweight (60kg) category. The boxer from Assam began in his usual attacking mode wining the first round with ease. But Kaushik bounced back in the second, with his terrific movement and punching abilities, even inflicting an eye injury on Shiva. But the injury did not deter the National Champion, as both the boxers went for the kill. Manish however stood the test to win the gold.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games silver -medalist Mandeep Jangra, who was representing RSPB, won his first national title in the middleweight (75kg) category, following a dominating 5-0 win over Mizoram’s Vanhlimpuia.
In the other bouts of the day, another RSPB boxer Shyam Kumar (49kg), won the gold medal after a hard fought 3-2 win over Mizoram’s Nt Lalbiakkima in the final. Asian Games bronze-medalist Satish (91kg) representing SSCB, defeated Haryana’s Parvin Kumar 5-0 to claim the gold in the super heavyweight category.