National Boxing Championship: Shiva Thapa, Mandeep, Manoj Kumar storm into finals

File photo of Shiva Thapa, in red (PTI)

Visakhapatnam: India's top boxers Shiva Thapa, Manoj Kumar and Mandeep Jangra lived up to their billing and breezed into the finals of the second Elite Men's National Boxing Championship here at the Swarna Bharati Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

The 2015 World Championship bronze medallist and a three-time Asian Championships medallist Thapa continued his imperious run to wallop Buntee Singh of Delhi 5-0.

Assam's Thapa, who is on course for his third national championship crown, will square off against Palwinder Singh of Punjab in the finals of the lightweight category.

Palwinder Singh proved that he won't be a pushover as he tamed Manish Kaushik of Services Sports Control Board's (SSCB) 5-0.

The 2016 South Asian Games Gold medallist Manoj Kumar of Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) routed Shubham of Punjab 5-0 to move a step closer to his fourth National Championship.

Kumar will face Duryodhan Singh of SSCB in the welterweight class summit clash.

"I am delighted with the win today. I came into the bout with a lot of confidence and I am glad to have made it to the finals," Manoj said after the bout.

Manoj conceded that he had to be cautious against Shubham as he was not aware of his in-ring style.

In a late evening fixture, Mandeep Jangra of RSPB beat Parag Chauhan 5-0 to punch his way into the finals in the middleweight category.

He will now face Vanhlimpuia of Mizoram, who beat Anup Chhetri of Meghalaya 5-0.

The results of all semifinals were as follows:

Light Welter Weight (64kg):

Basant Thapa (Madhya Pradesh) beat Jilmil Thomas (Kerala) 3-2

Dheeraj (SSCB) beat Ankit Khatana (Haryana) 5-0

Welter (69kg):

Duryodhan Singh (SSCB) beat Manish Uikey (Madhya Pradesh) 5-0

Manoj Kumar (RSPB) beat Shubham (Pune) 5-0

Middle Weight (75kg)

Mandeep Jangra ( RSPB) beat Parag Chauhan (Delhi) 5-0

Vanhlimpuia (Mizoram) beat Anup Chhetri (Meghalaya) 5-0

Light Heavy (81kg)

Neel Kamal (Delhi) beat Jagat Singh Belal (UTK) 4-1

Manish Panwar (RSPB) beat Brijesh Yadav 5-0