VIJAYNAGAR: Twenty-year-old Lakshya shocked Olympian Sumit Sangwan in an 86 kg semifinal match of the National boxing championships at the Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS) here on Monday.
Taller than the lanky Sumit, Lakshay recorded a 4-1 win to be among the 11 Services men who reached the finals.
Even as Sumit relied on his powerful combinations, Jaipur boy Lakshay —a two-time Khelo India champion and a Youth National champion who joined Army in February 2020—used his left jabs effectively from a long range. His counter punches, including a beautiful right hook, and defence fetched him a memorable victory.
In 57 kg, World youth champion Sachin of Haryana fought valiantly before going down to experienced Services man Mohammad Hussamuddin with a 4-1 verdict.
Akash, another young Services boxer, rode on his power and accuracy to upset the nimble-footed former World youth champion Sachin Siwach of Railways 4-1 in a 54 kg semifinal bout.
Other results (semifinals): Kuldeep Kumar (Chd) bt Ravi (Kumar (UP) 5-0, Govind Sahani (RSPB) bt Barun Singh (SSCB) 5-0;
51kg: Deepak Kumar (SSCB) bt Ajay Pendor (Mah) 5-0, Ankit (Har) bt Ruchir Srivas (MP) 5-0;
54kg: Rajpinder Singh (Pun) bt Sanjay Kumar (Utk) 5-0;
57kg: Rohit Mor (Del) bt Ashish Kumar (HP) 5-0;
60kg: Varinder Singh (RSPB) bt Harivansh Tawari (Mah) 3-0, Etash Khan Muhammed (SSCB) bt Vijay Kumar (Pun) 5-0;
63.5kg: Dalveer Singh Tomar (SSCB) bt Abinash Jamwal (HP) 4-1, Shiva Thapa (Asm) bt Abhishek Yadav (UP) 5-0;
67kg: Akash (SSCB) bt Dinesh (RSPB) 5-0, Aditya Pratap Yadav (UP) bt Amit Sheoran (Raj) 4-1;
71kg: Nishant Dev (Kar) bt Yashpal (Har) 5-0, Amit Kumar (DDNH) bt Hemant Yadav (Del) 5-0;
75kg: Sumit (SSCB) bt Nikhil Dubey (Mah) 5-0, Rohit Tokas (RSPB) bt Buntee Singh (Del) 5-0;
80kg: Vinit (Har) bt Rahul Rathi (Del) 5-0, Sachin Kumar (SSCB) bt Harpreet (Chd) 5-0;
86kg: Prayag Chauhan (RSPB) bt Gowtham Palani (TN) 5-0;
92kg: Naveen Kumar (Har) bt Raghav Chaudhary (Pun) 5-0, Sanjeet (SSCB) bt Harsh Kaushik (Del) 5-0;
92+kg: Sagar (Chd) bt Reynold Joseph (Mah) RSC-R1, Narender (SSCB) bt Sagar Chhikara (RSPB) 5-0.
