Jitender enters final with ease

The imposing Jitender Singh is an anathema to most boxers in the country. The tall and well-built Railway boxer, minus his look, is the most...

The imposing Jitender Singh is an anathema to most boxers in the country. The tall and well-built Railway boxer, minus his look, is the most affable pugilist one could ever encounter 8212; of course, only outside the rings.

But the moment he steps in to the arena, he is a changed person. When he goes for the kill with his accurate combination punches, the opponent facing him invariably quits the scene as quickly as possibile. And that8217;s the best way to keep away from his blows.

And it was no different in the 29th Men8217;s Senior National Boxing Championship at the IG Stadium here today. Listed as the last bout of the day, all the patient waiting of a few faithfuls came to a nought as the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist disposed of Balbir Singh of Punjab in the heavyweight category, forcing him to the quit the scene in less than a minute.

He will now take on Girbinder Singh of the Services for his title defence. The SSCB boxer was equally quick ins ending off Punit Yadav of Haryana as the former showed his superiorty in outclassing him. Similarly, T B Thapa of Madhya Pradesh sent a right to the head of Manoj Kumar of Haryana forcing the referee stop the contest. But V Johnson of the Services met his match in Parmender of Haryana today and luckily the former scrapped through with a 22-17 verdict.

Commonwealth Games gold medallists Mohammad Ali Qamar of the Railways and Som Bahadur Pun of the Services displayed their newly-acquired status as they kept their reputation intact without much adop.

Ali Qamar, though slow to start with, sent down a flurry of right jabs and even mixed his upper cuts to greter effect forcing the referee to stop the contest in the third round much to the relief of opponent Arun Singh of All India Police in the lightfly category. But Pun, though outscored Muztaba Kamal of the Railways in feather weight, was coming to terms slowly and steadily. In fact, Pun has reduced his weight two rungs below as he used to compete in light welter.

The Sydney Olympics pugilist S Suresh Singh of the CISF as aggressive as he is normally. Stepping the on the gas right from the first round, he traded punches on Robin Singh in the fly category and won comfortably at 32-18.

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Results
Lt Fly: Md Ali Qakar RSPB bt Aruns Singh AIP RSC 3rd; K Belwal SSCB bt Bhubaneswar Cth 38-17.

Fly: S Suresh Singh CISF bt Rohin Dev SPSB 32-18; Akhil Kumar RSPB bt D Kannan SSCB 25-14.

Bantam: Dalbir Singh CISF bt Dharambeer Singh RSPB 31-30; Y Herojit Singh Man btt Sujit Biswa AR 34-15.

Feather: Som Bahadur Pun SSCB bt Muztaba Kamal RSPB 33-14; D Manikandan AP gets w/o from Bishal Chettri RSPB.

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Light: B Ramanand SSCB bt Devender Del RSC OC2nd; Pawan Kumar Har bt Anil Kumar Utr 39-16.

Lt Welter: TB Thapa Meg bt L Bkiramjeet Singh Man 60-34; V Harikrishnan RSPB btt C Kuttappa SSCB 14-9.

Welter: A Santosh Kumar SSCB bt Sanjay Kumar Har 28-19; Anil Kumar bt Subasaran TN Rtd 3rd.

Lt Middle: Rajesh Kumar CISF bt Vijay Chauhan Chd RSC 3rd; Kanta Singh SSCB bt V Shivraj Rtd 2nd.

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Middle: Satish Kumar SSCB gets w8217;o from Man Kumar Rai Skm; Joginder Dagar AIP bt K Lowerence SPSB 29-28.