South Asian Games gold medallist Chhote Lal Yadav bowed out of the men’s national boxing championship after losing his quarterfinal bout 11-17 to Manipur’s S Santosh Singh, here on Friday.
In the other half of the draw last year’s bronze medallist V Durga Rao of Karnataka booked a place in the semifinals with a victory over Yudh Veer of Madhya Pradesh. He next faces
Haryana state champion Ajay Kumar.
Chhote Lal’s defeat in the bantam weight category was a major blow to the Services team.
Chhote Lal, last year’s nationals’ bronze medal winner, was slow off the mark and Singh took complete advantage of his sluggish start.
The Manipuri said he was under no pressure going into the bout.
“I have sparred with Chhote Lal many times in training camps before and I know his game. I have been working very hard for this tournament and I was sure of making it into the semifinals,” Singh said. He next faces Ashish Gautam of Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Amandeep Singh of Railways and 2009 Asian Championship gold medallist Nanao Singh of Services continued their winning run and advanced into the round of four of the light flyweight category.
Amandeep defeated Salman Anwar Shaikh of Maharashtra, while Nanao overpowered Vinod Kumar of SPSB.
Local lad K Sagar’s campaign came to an end when he lost to last year’s silver medallist Pankaj Saini of Punjab.