Naman Tanwar, Neeraj Swami start on winning note

Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Naman Tanwar was among the prominent names who made a winning start on the second day of 4th Elite National Boxing Championships here on Saturday.

Last year's bronze medal winner Naman (91kg), representing Railways, showed superb form and fitness to notch up a 5-0 win against Ashish Bhandor of Himachal Pradesh.

Ashish was no match for his opponent as Naman landed a flurry of accurate punches to silence the local boxer.

President's Cup gold medallist Neeraj Swami (49 kg) also began his campaign in a dominant fashion against Meghalaya's Phiban Sohtun. The diminutive boxer from Delhi attacked from the beginning and landed some mighty blows on his opponent's face which forced the referee to stop the contest in the first round.

India Open silver medallist Sumit Sangwan (91 kg), making a comeback, won his bout against Gujarat's Rizwan Ahmed comfortably as the bout had to be stopped in the first round itself.

Chandigarh's Vipin Kumar (49kg) and Punjab's Shiv Kant were involved in a highly entertaining bout as both the boxers traded punches and displayed great attacking prowess. But Vipin got the nod of the judges at the end with a 3-2 verdict.

Assam's Irfan Khan blanked Kerala's Athul Raj 5-0 in the light flyweight category.

After playing cautiously in the first round, Irfan showed quick movement and footwork to control the bout in the last two rounds.

The pugilists will compete in all the ten weight categories -- 49kg, 52kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75 kg, 81kg, 91kg and +91kg -- as teams from Ladakh and Andaman and Nicobar are participating for the first time.