Nanao reaches prequarters of National boxing

Hyderbad, November 01: 2009 Asian Boxing Championship gold winner Nanao Singh of the Services and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Amandeep Singh of Railways reached the prequarterfinals of the 59th Sahara Men's National Boxing Championship in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

In the light fly weight division, Amandeep and Nanao set the boxing ring on fire with lightening fast moves and notched up similar victories, with the referee stopping the contest in both the occasions.

Amandeep needed less than a round to beat Mohd Khaja Hussain of Tamil Nadu as he was leading 8-0 when the referee decided to spare Hussain of any further agony.

V Zosangpuia of Mizoram suffered a similar fate against Nanao as the nimble-footed Manipur boxer trounced Zosangpuia with consummate ease.

In another contest, Sangkar Singh Thapa of Meghalaya proved too hot to handle for rookie boxer K Sagar of Andra Pradesh.

The 18-year-old, playing his first senior national, was no match to the superior power play and tactics of Thapa, who won with a round to spare.

In the fly weight division, Gaurav Bidhuri of Delhi and Sunil Kumar of Railways brought the afternoon crowd at the LB stadium to life with some scintillating boxing but in the end it was the former who emerged victories at 12-8.

Gaurav took the early advantage and put Sunil on the back foot with his accurate hooks and jabs. After the first three minutes, the Delhi boxer had a three point lead.

The 19-year-old continued to pull through against some solid attacking by Sunil and by the end of the second round he had increased his overall lead to 4 points (8-4).