Olympian and Asian medallist Sumit Sangwan began his journey in a new weight division on a confident note, winning his first round bout in the 86kg category on the opening day of the National boxing championships at the Inspire Institute of Sports campus in Vijayanagar on Wednesday.
Representing Haryana, Sangwan, who competed in the 91kg in the last National championships in Baddi in 2019 and 81kg in the Asian championships in May last, eased past Harish Prasadula of Andhra Pradesh 5-0 in the newly introduced weight category.
Delhi’s Neeraj Swami, another experienced boxer and the 2019 President’s Cup gold medallist, also made a winning start. He blanked Haryana’s Sagar 5-0 in the 48kg class which was making a comeback after a year’s gap.
Punjab’s Rajpinder Singh trounced Rahul Niltu of Himachal Pradesh 5-0 in a 54kg bout. Maharashtra’s Nikhil Dubey and Chhattisgarh’s Dinesh Kumar Yadav posted contrasting victories in the 75kg section. Nikhil took out Sejad Lilgar of Gujarat in the first round (referee stopped contest) while Dinesh had to work hard against Bengal’s Abhishek Shaw to secure a 3-2 win.
Important results: 48kg: Kuldeep Kumar (Chd) bt Suraj Routh (WB) 4-1; Sujat Hussain (Lad) bt Pratik (Bih) k.o. (R2); 54kg: Sanket Goud (Mah) bt Appala Raju Pedda (AP) 5-0.
67kg: Subham Kumar (AIP) bt Zomuansanga (Miz) 3-2; Dinesh (RSPB) bt Vasu Pinapothina (SPSB) 5-0.
75kg: Sumit (SSCB) bt Aditya Maan (Chd) 5-0; 92-plus kg: Sagar Singh (Utk) bt Nagesh Patil (Kar) 4-1; Akash (Del) bt Sushil Raj (TN) 4-1.
