Manish powers ahead

Pune, Oct 31: Commonwealth Games silver- medallist and defending champion Manish Kaushik ( 60kg) was among the prominent names who assured themselves of medals by entering the semifinals of the Senior Men's National Boxing Championships here on Wednesday.

Manish, competing for the Services Sports Control Board ( SSCB), notched up a 5- 0 win over Uttar Pradesh’s Sunil Chauhan to be guaranteed of a second successive national medal.

Former youth world champion Sachin Siwach ( 52kg), representing defending team champions Railways Sports Promotion Board ( RSPB), continued his impressive run to defeat West Bengal’s Manjeet Kumar. Sachin is competing in his maiden senior nationals.

World Championships bronze- medallist Gaurav Bidhuri, another RSPB boxer, made the 56kg category semis with a 5- 0 triumph over Punjab’s Rajpinder Singh.

Ulaanbaatar Cup goldmedallist Ankush Dahiya ( 60kg), who is turning up for RSPB, remained on course for a clash with Manish in the finals after beating Madhya Pradesh's Prabhat 4- 1 in his quarterfinal bout.

This year’s Arjuna awardee and CWG silvermedallist Satish Kumar ( SSCB) hardly broke a sweat as he outclassed Rajasthan's Deepak Chaudhary in just the opening three minutes of his + 91kg category quarters.

CWG bronze- medallist Naman Tanwar clinched exactly the same result in the 91kg category, beating Maharashtra's Saurabh Lenekar. Sanjeet ( SSCB) too advanced to the 91kg d medal rounds. — PTI