The imposing Jitender Singh is an anathema to most boxers in the country. The tall and well-built Railway boxer, minus his look, is the most affable pugilist one could ever encounter — of course, only outside the rings. But the moment he steps in to the arena, he is a changed person. When he goes for the kill with his accurate combination punches, the opponent facing him invariably quits the scene as quickly as possibile. And that’s the best way to keep away from his blows.And it was no different in the 29th Men’s Senior National Boxing Championship at the IG Stadium here today. Listed as the last bout of the day, all the patient waiting of a few faithfuls came to a nought as the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist disposed of Balbir Singh of Punjab in the heavyweight category, forcing him to the quit the scene in less than a minute.He will now take on Girbinder Singh of the Services for his title defence. The SSCB boxer was equally quick ins ending off Punit Yadav of Haryana as the former showed his superiorty in outclassing him. Similarly, T B Thapa of Madhya Pradesh sent a right to the head of Manoj Kumar of Haryana forcing the referee stop the contest. But V Johnson of the Services met his match in Parmender of Haryana today and luckily the former scrapped through with a 22-17 verdict.Commonwealth Games gold medallists Mohammad Ali Qamar of the Railways and Som Bahadur Pun of the Services displayed their newly-acquired status as they kept their reputation intact without much adop.Ali Qamar, though slow to start with, sent down a flurry of right jabs and even mixed his upper cuts to greter effect forcing the referee to stop the contest in the third round much to the relief of opponent Arun Singh of All India Police in the lightfly category. But Pun, though outscored Muztaba Kamal of the Railways in feather weight, was coming to terms slowly and steadily. In fact, Pun has reduced his weight two rungs below as he used to compete in light welter.The Sydney Olympics pugilist S Suresh Singh of the CISF as aggressive as he is normally. Stepping the on the gas right from the first round, he traded punches on Robin Singh in the fly category and won comfortably at 32-18.ResultsLt Fly: Md Ali Qakar (RSPB) bt Aruns Singh (AIP) RSC 3rd; K Belwal (SSCB) bt Bhubaneswar (Cth) 38-17. Fly: S Suresh Singh (CISF) bt Rohin Dev (SPSB) 32-18; Akhil Kumar (RSPB) bt D Kannan (SSCB) 25-14.Bantam: Dalbir Singh (CISF) bt Dharambeer Singh (RSPB) 31-30; Y Herojit Singh (Man) btt Sujit Biswa (AR) 34-15.Feather: Som Bahadur Pun (SSCB) bt Muztaba Kamal (RSPB) 33-14; D Manikandan (AP) gets w/o from Bishal Chettri (RSPB).Light: B Ramanand (SSCB) bt Devender (Del) RSC (OC)2nd; Pawan Kumar (Har) bt Anil Kumar (Utr) 39-16.Lt Welter: TB Thapa (Meg) bt L Bkiramjeet Singh (Man) 60-34; V Harikrishnan (RSPB) btt C Kuttappa (SSCB) 14-9.Welter: A Santosh Kumar (SSCB) bt Sanjay Kumar (Har) 28-19; Anil Kumar bt Subasaran (TN) Rtd 3rd.Lt Middle: Rajesh Kumar (CISF) bt Vijay Chauhan (Chd) RSC 3rd; Kanta Singh (SSCB) bt V Shivraj (Rtd 2nd).Middle: Satish Kumar (SSCB) gets w’o from Man Kumar Rai (Skm); Joginder Dagar (AIP) bt K Lowerence (SPSB) 29-28.Lt Heavy: Harpreet Singh (RSPB) bt Ravi Gill (AP) RSC 3rd; TB Thapa (MP) bt Manoj Kumar (Har) RSC(H) 1st.Heavy: Gurbinder Singh (SSCB) bt Punit Yadav (Har) RSC OC 1st; Jitender Kumar (RSPB) bt Balbir Singh (Pun) Rtd 1st.Super Heavy: Shakti Singh (RSPB) bt Anil Kumar (RSC OC) 2nd; V Johnson (SSCB) bt Parmender 22-17.
