Samota wins fifth consecutive gold at Nationals

Chennai: Commonwealth Games heavy weight champion Paramjeet Samota clinched his fifth consecutive gold at the 58th Senior Men`s National Boxing Championship after beating Satish Kumar of Services in the finals on Saturday.

Nanao Singh also cliched the national title in the light fly weight, while in the bantam weight class, Shiva Thapa emerged as the national champion. Up against the Asian Games bronze medallist, Satish Kumar of the service gave a brilliant account of his agility and skills and stole the show in the first round scoring nine points as opposed to Samota`s six. In the second round, both the boxers went all out and scored seven points apiece but in the final round it was the 23-year-old Samota who had the last laugh as he won the round 19-9 and with it the bout. "My strategy was to go slow and wear out my opponent and go all out in the third round, I played according to my plan and it paid dividends. This is my fifth consecutive gold and very happy with this accomplishment," the five-time national champion said. Nanao Singh also capped a brilliant performance with another scintillating victory in the final round of the light fly weight division against Pankaj Saini of Punjab. The 2009 Asian Championship silver medallist kept the pressure on Saini right from the start with his swift movement and effective left and right jabs and went on to reclaim the National Champion title with a score of 14-6. It was an emotional victory for the 20-year-old from Manipur, who had to sit out most of last year with injury problems. "Last year was a difficult period for me with the hand injury, but this year I have done well on the domestic circuit and hope to carry on the form and make it big in the international arena," he said. In the bantam weight class, nimble-footed Shiva Thapa, a gold medallist at the 2011 Belgrade Winner tournament, was at his menacing best as he trounced local lad V Maniknandan 13-6 to win his first Senior National Championship gold medal. In the fly weight category, silver medallist at the Tammer Tournament in Finland, Madan Lal of IBF exhibited an excellent blend of grit and determination. The reigning national champion started off slowly against Sunil Kumar of the Railways and was down by two points after the first two rounds of play but in the final three minutes Madan launched a counter offensive as Sunil crumbled. With hard hitting body blows and hooks, Madan managed to level the score before taking the lead and eventually defended his title after beating Sunil 8-7. "Sunil was not an easy boxer to beat, he is fast and has a solid defence. I kept my composure and waited till the right moment to make my move and it work very well. I am very happy with my performance in the tournament," said Madan after his medal winning bout. In the light weight class, Olympian Diwakar Prasad hammered Vijay Kumar of Haryana with an inspiring exhibition of high class boxing, which enthralled the audience. The WSB boxer of the Venky`s Mumbai Fighters was in exceptional touch and completely dominated the proceeding with his in and out game and won the bout 19-9 on points and with it the gold medal. Railways bagged their fifth title on the trot with three gold medals, one silver and two bronze. Services came in second with two gold medals, one silver and four bronze while the IBF team brought up the third spot. PTI