Men's Boxing National Championship begins with more than 300 taking part

Maharashtra's Rohit Chavan defeated Bengal's Mazhar Hussain in an exciting 60kg kg bout on the opening day of the 4th Elite Men's Boxing National Championship here on Friday.

A total of 36 bouts were held on the first day at Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technology, Himachal Pradesh. More than 300 boxers from 39 teams will participate in the championships.

In other bouts, Services' Vinod Tanwar (49kg) landed a string of power-packed punches on Tripura's Sayan Lodhi which forced the referee to stop the contest in the first round itself.

In the 52kg category, Delhi's Siddharth Solanki displayed superb control and movement to defeat Chandigarh's Mewa Singh 5-0 in the preliminaries.

The most exciting bout of the day was between Rohit and Mazhar in 60kg. Both the boxers fought neck and neck throughout the three rounds but Rohit prevailed at the end with a 3-2 verdict.

Among the other key bouts of the day, Haryana's Sahil defeated Varun Phaartyal of Uttarakhand in the 60Kg category in a unanimous verdict.

The fourth edition will witness some of India's top boxers like World Championships medallist Shiva Thapa (63kg), Asian Championships silver medallist and local boy Ashish Kumar (75kg), World Youth champion Sachin Siwach (57kg), Makran Cup bronze medallist Rohit Tokas (75 kg) and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mohammad Hussamuddin (57kg).

The boxers who were part of India's World Championships team will not be seen action.

The pugilists will compete in all the ten weight categories -- 49kg, 52kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75 kg, 81kg, 91kg and +91kg. Teams from Ladakh and Andaman & Nicobar will participate for the first time, thereby validating Boxing Federation of India's (BFI) efforts to promote boxing throughout the country.

The preliminary bouts will be held on the first four days followed by the knockout stage starting from October 8. The finals will be held on October 10.