Secnd successive gold for Manish, Gaurav takes silver; SSCB dominates boxing nationals

Defending champion Manish Kaushik (60kg) claimed a second successive gold, while world-medallist Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg) signed off with a silver in the Senior Men's National Boxing Championships, which concluded here on Friday.

The Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) dominated the summit clashes with all their eight finalists clinching gold medals.

Defending champions Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) was a distant second, snapping up the remaining two gold medals on offer.

In a rarity at the Nationals, traditional powerhouse Haryana failed to fetch a single gold medal this time around.

Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Manish (SSCB), defeated Ulaanbaatar Cup gold-medallist Ankush Dahiya of the Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB).

However, world championship bronze-medallist Bidhuri (RSPB) took home a silver after losing to former champion Madan Lal (SSCB) in the bantamweight final.

Railways fetched the 64kg category gold through King's Cup bronze-winner Rohit Tokas. Rohit got the better of Uttar Pradesh's Abhishek Yadav in his final bout.

India Open gold-medallist Sanjeet continued the SSCB's dominance by notching up the 91kg category gold in his maiden Nationals.

Sanjeet defeated Haryana's Parveen Kumar to finish on top and continue his rapid rise.

CWG silver-medallist and this year's Arjuna awardee Satish Kumar (+91kg) also took the gold to shore up the SSCB's tally, beating RSPB's Jasveer Singh in the finals.

In the 81kg category, Manish Panwar (RSPB) became the champion by getting the better of Rajasthan's Brijesh Yadav.

The other Services gold medals came through Deepak (49kg), P L Prasad (52kg) Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg) and Manjeet Singh (75kg).