Dingko has a cake walkThe bantam weight final at the National Games boxing here turned out to be a real anti-climax with Dingko Singh's opponent Birju Sah (Bihar) giving a walk over. The official reason was put as `medically unfit.'But the cheers were no less for Dingko Singh with the entire stadium applauding as he raised his arms in victory. He also did a victory lap outside the ring, waving to his fans in the stands.With Dingko's fight becoming a non-starter, it was another Manipuri who hogged the limelight. Veteran ZV Jollison Thangkhul was the sentimental favourite in the welterweight category, although he was turning out for Bihar. He won his bout against K Nitya Singh of Meghalaya 21-5. That was quite expected, but the scene later was a feast for the eyes.A young girl rushed in to wrap a traditional shawl around him and others just wanted to shake his hand. A beaming Jollison was ever willing to meet his fans, raising his arms for the photographers' benefit.Services grabbed the maximum number of gold medals. Their boxers were in seven finals and picked up six. The only loser was Narender Rana in light weight who was beaten by Delhi's Bhushan Saini on points. Asian Games bronze medallist Gurcharan Singh had an easy fight today with his opponent AK Sangwan of Delhi retiring in the third round. Singh unnerved Sangwan with a flurry of punches in the second round and followed it with some ferocious hooks and jabs in the third.Sreeja pips NishaThe monotony was finally broken today. Nisha Millet was beaten at last in the 50m butterfly by Bengal's Sreeja Majumdar with Reshma, Nisha's sister, picking up bronze.However, that did not deter the Karnataka swimmer from picking up two more gold medals today - one in individual and the other in team. Nisha won the 200m backstroke in 2:41.17s to win gold. Reshma won silver in 2:43.43s. Later, the quartet of Nisha, Reshma, Veena and K Chitra bagged the 4x100m freestyle gold in 4:30.80s. Kerala took the silver in 4:34.33s, while Maharashtra won bronze in 4:43.52s. Nisha has so far won 12 gold and one silver.Kerala picked up two more gold medals in men's with TK Senthil Kumar and Sebastian Xavier delivering the goods once again. Senthil timed 2:21.08 in 200m backstroke, ahead of Sanjay Tokas of Delhi (2:21.85s). Bengal's Surajit Singh finished third in 2:24.95s.Xavier added another gold medal in 50m freestyle in 24.84s. His teammate IC Raju took silver in 25.27s, while Services TA Sujith bagged bronze in 25.95s.
