Nikhat breezes past Banoo

While the top names continued to march ahead inside the ring, refereeing continued to raise questions on day four of the Elite men’s and women’s National boxing championships on Wednesday.

A bout was abandoned and another saw a boxer literally sinking his teeth into his opponent even as the officials continued to insist that everything was fine. Amidst all this, the favourites won their respective contests easily to advance to the quarterfinals.

Pawan Bartwal, silver medallist at the recent World Boxing Cup finals, was leading after two close rounds against Lalit of All India Police Sports Control Board (AIPSCB) when the match was declared abandoned and awarded to Pawan. The bout had been acrimonious from the beginning with AIPSCB officials questioning the refereeing after the judges awarded both rounds 3-2 to Pawan. While Technical Director Rajan Sharma only said he would submit a complete report to the BFI, officials from both sides had their versions.

“Lalit was tired because of which his coach refused to get out of the ring and he did not come in even after the judges sounded the time-up warning. That is not allowed,” a Services official claimed.

Several AIPSCB people entered the ring to protest the decision. “Our boxer was ready to play,” the Police side insisted.

“In the Bantamweight (50kg-55kg) bout between Pawan (SSCB) and Lalit (AIPSCB), the boxer from the Police contingent was officially declared abandoned in accordance with competition rules after he did not turn up for the third round of the bout…,” the BFI later said in an official statement.

Interestingly, there was no video available for the bout with the BFI’s official stream not working for Ring 1.

In Ring 2, Ishmeet of RSPB won against Mohit of AIPSCB 5-0 in the 75kg and the Railways team later complained of Mohit repeatedly biting their player. “What kind of refereeing is this, he should have been disqualified in the first round itself,” a fuming RSPB officials said. The medical officer was later seen taking photographs of the alleged bite marks.

In contrast, the women’s section was sedate with two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen spending less than two minutes inside the ring, the referee stopping contest against Ladakh’s Kulsooma Banoo in the first round.

Nitu Ghanghas, having moved up a category to 51kg, stayed on course for a showdown with Nikhat with a 5-0 win over Tamil Nadu’s Kalaivani S. Srinivasan M. Minakshi Hooda continued her march towards retaining the 48kg title with a 5-0 victory against Annu.

Reigning 57kg world champion Jaismine Lamboria, however, having received a bye in the opening round, pulled out of her clash with Vinka due to a shoulder injury.

Important results: Men: 55kg: Pawan Bartwal (SSCB) bt Lalit (AIPSCB) Abd Rd 3; Jadumani Singh (SSCB) bt Manish Rathore (UP) 5-0; Amit Panghal (SSCB) bt Krrish Pal (Chd) 4-1; 60kg: Sachin Siwach (SSCB) bt Gorish (Har) 5-0; Hussamuddin (SSCB) bt Akshay (Chd) 5-0; 65kg: Abhinash Jamwal (HP) bt Smarak Ranjan (Odi) 5-0; 70kg: Hitesh Gulia (SSCB) bt Nishchaya (AIPSCB) 5-0; 75kg: Sumit Kundu (SSCB) bt Kapil (MP) RSC-1.

Women: 48kg: Minakshi Hooda (AIPSCB) bt Annu (Jha) 5-0; Manju Rani (RSPB) bt Sonia Tamang (Meg) 5-0; 51kg: Nikhat Zareen (TS) bt Kulsooma Banoo RSC-1, Nitu Ghanghas (Har) bt Kalaivani S. Srinivasan (TN) 5-0; 54kg: Preeti Pawar (SSCB) bt Rushika (Chd) 5-0; Sakshi Chaudhary (SSCB) bt L.K. Abinaya (TN) RSC-II; 57kg: Vinka (Har) w/o Jaismine.