Elite Men's National Boxing C'ships: Sanjeet, Shiva Thapa and Hussamuddin enter finals

Sanjeet, Shiva Thapa and Mohammad Hussamuddin continued their brilliant run as they progressed into the finals of the 5th Elite Men's National Boxing Championships in the Inspire Institute of Sports in Bellary, Karnataka on Monday.

The current Asian champion Sanjeet, representing Services Sports Control Board (SSCB), proved too strong for his opponent Harsh Kaushik from Delhi as he registered a convincing 5-0 win in the 92kg semi-final. Sanjeet will take on Haryana's Naveen Kumar in the final. Naveen blanked Punjab's Raghav Chaudhary. Final matches will take place on Tuesday.

Another SSCB boxer Hussamuddin, however, faced a tough challenge from the in-form youth world champion Sachin of Haryana. The defending champion Hussamuddin had to work hard before completing a 4-1 win in an intense 57kg semi-final bout. He will fight against Delhi's Rohit Mor in the gold medal match.

Deepak (51kg), Akash (54kg), Etash Khan Muhammed (60kg), Dalveer Singh Tomar (63.5kg), Akash (67kg), Sumit (75kg), Sachin Kumar (80kg), Lakshya (86kg) and Narender (+92kg) were the other SSCB boxers to advance into the finals.

Meanwhile in the 63.5kg, the World Championships bronze medallist Thapa recorded a dominating victory against Uttar Pradesh's Abhishek Yadav by unanimous margin. The experienced Assam pugilist Thapa will square off with SSCB's Dalveer in the final.

Chandigarh's Kuldeep Kumar (48kg) and Sagar (+92kg) also made their way into the finals with equally dominant victories. While Kuldeep Kumar outperformed Uttar Pradesh's Ravi Kumar with a unanimous margin, Sagar too comfortably defeated Maharashtra's Reynold Joseph by RSC verdict.

For Karnataka, Nishant Dev also booked a final berth in the 71kg category. Nishant got the better of Haryana's Yashpal with an easy 5-0 win.

Gold medal winners from the championships will earn themselves a chance to represent the country at the 2021 AIBA Elite Men's World Boxing Championships which is scheduled in Serbia from October 24 to November 6.

( With inputs from ANI )