Shiva Thapa, Hussamuddin win gold as Services continue to dominate Men's Boxing Nationals

Services continued its domination at the national level and defended the national title while Shiva Thapa (63kg), Mohammad Hussamuddin (57kg) and PL Prasad (52kg) won gold medals on the last day of 4th Elite Men's National Boxing Championships at the Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technology on Thursday.

Services won nine medals including six gold, two silver and one bronze to top the points table with 62 points while Railways and Haryana finished second and third with 37 and 30 points respectively.

In one of the highly-anticipated bouts of the day, Railways' Sachin Siwach took on Mohammad Hussamuddin of Services in the 57 kg final. The fierce bout started with the latter conceding more punches as the 5 feet 9 inches tall Sachin took advantage of his height.

The next two rounds saw Hussamuddin making a comeback as he dodged a lot of punches and adopted an attacking strategy mixed with counter-attacking punches to fetch a 3-2 split verdict in his favour.

Talking about the importance of gold medal, Hussamuddin said: "This gold medal is really important for me as it has enhanced my confidence before a very crucial period leading up to Olympics".

In 63 kg final, Assam's Shiva Thapa grabbed the gold medal after defeating Services' Akash 4-1. Shiva started slowly and took some time to gauge his opponent's strategy but once he settled in, he dominated the proceedings and controlled the bout.

Services' PL Prasad (52kg), who had an easy run till the final, faced a tough challenge from Ashish Insha of Railways. The two boxers exchanged a lot of blows and displayed their attacking prowess but PL Prasad showed his composure and experience in the last round to win 3-2 and defend his national title.

In 69 kg, Services' Naveen Boora ended Gujarat's Jayesh Desai's winning run with some brutal and heavy punches which forced the referee to stop the contest in the first round itself.

In 75 kg and 91 kg finals, Railways' boxers Rohit Tokas and Naman Tanwar had to withdraw due to minor injuries which led to Haryana's Ankit Khatana and Sumit Sangwan bagging the gold in the respective categories.

The 52 kg final saw the young Services boxer Vinod Tanwar complete his dream run with a gold medal as he defeated Maharashtra's Ajay Pendor 4-1.

A total of 308 boxers from 39 steams participated in the tournament which saw a lot of young and promising boxers show their skills for 7 days.

( With inputs from ANI )