Continuing their dominance at the ongoing 5th Junior Boys National Boxing Championship, six Arunachal Pradesh boxers ensured medals by making it to the semifinals of their respective weight categories at the Don Bosco College ground in Itanagar on July 12.
Techi Jacky (46kg), Loma Riang (50kg), Nanthok Hodong (54kg), Tagio Liyak (57kg), and Tarh Lonia (60kg) displayed their prowess on the ring to romp home comfortably in their respective quarterfinal ties.
Gaykie Rie (52kg) also made it to the last four stages after receiving a walkover from his Punjab opponent in their light bantamweight division quarterfinal.
Techi started the proceedings for the home side with a convincing 5-0 unanimous decision (UD) win against Aakash Badhwar of the Services Sports Control Board in their 46kg Pinweight category bout. Techi looked comfortable from the start and used his technique to perfection before emerging as the winner.
In the 50kg Flyweight category quarterfinal bout, Loma Riang of Arunachal had to work hard in the first two rounds before eventually managing to tame Haryana’s Vansh by a 3:2 split decision verdict.
In the 54kg Bantamweight category quarterfinal, Nanthok Hodong did make light work of Punjab’s Arshpreet Singh to be declared winner by UD. Nanthok got off to a dominating start in the first round and didn’t let the Punjab boxer take the upper hand in the second round too. In the decisive third round, Nanthok didn’t let his guard down and ensured a smooth passage to the last four stage.
In the 57kg featherweight division, Tagio Liyak registered a laborious 3-2 win against Jassan Deep of the Services. Both boxers traded punches of equal intensity in the first two rounds before Tagio saved his energy for the final round to make his way to the semifinals of the 57kg category.
Tarh Lonia displayed his aggressive best on the day to ensure an RSC (Referee Stop Contest) win against S Hariharan of Tamil Nadu in the 60kg Lightweight category quarterfinal. The Tamil Nadu boxer hardly had any answers to Lonia’s challenge, leading the referees to stop the contest midway and ensure Tarh’s smooth passage to the semifinals.
It was, however, heartbreak for a couple of the Arunachal’s pugilists as Tarok Gango lost 5-0 to Ravindra Padvi of Maharashtra in the light flyweight 48kg category bout, while Tangu Ngomle also met a similar fate in the hands of Uttarakhand’s Karan Singh in the Lightweight category 63kg quarterfinal.
The semifinals will be played on July 13.
