Haryana men and women dominate boxing ring

Haryana's Pinky Jangra, who created a flutter by defeating five-time world champion M C Mary Kom two years ago, caused another upset today in women's fly weight (51 kg) class when she outclassed reigning Senior National champion and former Asian championship medallist L Sarita Devi of Manipur 5-0 in the final to clinch the gold.

The 21-year-old, who had earned lots of accolades after trouncing Mary Kom in the quarter-final round of the senior women's national boxing championship in 2009 at the same venue here, put up a stiff challenge against the 26-year-old Manipuri girl. Both the boxers were locked scoreless till the third round before Jangra went all out to snatch five quick points in the last round to leave her opponent stunned.

Jangra exhibited a combination of footwork and powerful punches as Sarita, who is a medal prospect in the London Olympics, made abortive attempt to surpass. But the youngster perfectly blocked her punches. This is Jangra's first gold in the National games.

Haryana, however, suffered a setback when its national championship bronze medalist Suman went down to Jharkhand's Sushma Kumari, a bronze medalist of the 11th senior national boxing championship at Thrissur, 8-1 in the Bantam weight (54 kg) class in the women's section.

Displaying her perfect footwork, Sushma went all out right from the first round and kept on grabbing points in each rounds. After accumulating one point each in first two sets, Sushma opened up and started delivering perfect punches to clinch the gold.

National champion Pavitra (Haryana) took the revenge for Suman's loss by pipping Mandakini Chann (Jharkhand) 8-3 in the feather 57 kg class.

Jharkhand's International Aruna Mishra, a reigning national champion, won a gold for the host in the light welter (64 kg) class of the final. Mishra sailed through right from the start leaving no scope for her rival to score as she clinch the bout easily 5-2, winning the second gold for Jharkhand.

In another bout, national champion Vanlal Duati (Tripura) continued her winning streak as she brushed aside Krishna Thapa of Madhya Pradesh 7-2 in a closely contested final bout of the women's light fly (48 kg) class.

Duati, who trounced Monita Devi of Arunachal Pradesh in the final of the 11th senior national boxing championship held at Thrissur in last December, maintained her lead right from the first round even though Thapa kept on mounting pressure by grabbing points.

Duati went aggressive in the last round and delivered accurate punches to fetch four points to turn the bout in her favour. In the men's section, Sunil Kumar, Sandeep and Dilbag Singh won first place in different weight categories while Jharkhand's International pugilist Mishal Banjamin Lakra won a gold for the state.

International repute Th Nanao Singh (Manipur) defeated CWG bronze medalist Amandeep Singh (Punjab) in a tough contested bout 5-3 to win gold in men's light fly (49 kgs).
Taking the bout from blue corner, Singh did not allow his rival to take an upper hand in the first two rounds, which ended up locked at 0-0 and 1-1. But then Nanao started to attack and despite a stiff resistance from Singh, extended the lead to 4-2 in the last round to grab the yellow medal.

Lakra, who is the cousin of International medallist Anthresh Lakra, opened the account on a winning note for his state when he defeated Shiva Thapa (Assam) 4-1 to win gold in the Bantam 56 kgs weight class. Sunil Kumar of Haryana beat Santosh Harijan (Goa) 4-0 to bag the gold metal.