Deepak Kumar, Naveen Boora progress at national boxing championship
A total of 75 bouts were scheduled across 11 categories on the second day of the tournament.
Indian boxers Deepak Kumar and Naveen Boora got off to winning starts at the men’s national boxing championship 2021 on Thursday.
Deepak Kumar, who represents the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB), outboxed Bihar’s Aman Kumar for a convincing 5-0 victory in the first round of the 51kg on Day 2 of the event.
Deepak Kumar made headlines in February this year, when he pulled off an upset win over world and Olympic champion Shakobodin Zoirov of Uzbekistan in the semi-finals of the Strandja Memorial tournament.
The youngster, a silver-medallist at the Asian Championships, settled for the second spot on the podium at the Strandja Memorial after losing in the final to Bulgaria’s Daniel Asenov.
Fellow SSCB boxer Naveen Boora, a 69kg bronze winner at Strandja, also began with a win at the national championships in the 71kg category.
A total of 75 bouts were scheduled across 11 categories on the second day of the tournament. The opening day saw Olympians Sumit Sangwan and Dinesh Kumar advancing.
The winners at the national championships will be handed an automatic spot at October’s world boxing championships in Serbia and will also train at the national camp.
Tokyo Olympians Amit Panghal, Manish Kaushik, Vikas Krishan, Ashish Kumar and Satish Kumar have all opted out of the national championships owing to a combination of lack of practice and injuries.
This is the fifth edition of the men’s national boxing championships and pugilists are competing for medals in the 48kg, 51kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63.5kg, 67kg, 71kg, 75kg, 80kg, 86kg, 92kg, and +92kg weight categories in accordance with AIBA rules.