Baddi (Himachal Pradesh): Services continued their domination and defended the national title while Shiva Thapa (63kg), Mohammad Hussamuddin (57kg) and P.L. Prasad (52kg) won gold in their respective categories on the concluding day of 4th Elite Mens National Boxing Championships at the Baddi University of Emerging Sciences and Technology here on Thursday.
Services won nine medals, including six gold, two silver and a bronze, to top the table with 62 points while Railways and Haryana finished second and third with 37 and 30 points, respectively.
In one of the highly-anticipated bouts of the day, Railways' Sachin Siwach took on Mohammad Hussamuddin of Services in the 57kg final. The fierce bout started with the latter conceding more punches as Sachin taking advantage of his height.
However, the next two rounds saw Hussamuddin make a strong comeback as he dodged a lot of punches and adopted an attacking strategy mixed with counter-attacking punches to fetch a 3-2 split verdict in his favour.
In the 63kg final, Assam's Shiva Thapa grabbed the gold after defeating Services' Akash 4-1. Shiva started slowly and took some time to gauge his opponent's strategy, but once he settled in, he dominated the proceedings and controlled the bout.