Jai Bhagwan books final berth, Jitender upsets Belwal in semis

New Delhi, Aug 28 (UNI) Doha Asian Games bronze medallist Jai Bhagwan of Railways booked his final berth in the lightweight category with a tactical victory over Maharashtra's Rakesh in the 54th Senior Men National Boxing championship here today.

Bhagwan started the match on a uncharacteristically shaky note but eventually prevailed over Rakesh 15-8.

In the first and second round, Bhagwan was not in his best but managed to end both the rounds with a lead -- 3-2 and 7-4 respectively.

However, the start of the third round saw Bhagwan in a different mood, using his height to great advantage to lend a flurry of punches on his Maharashtrain opponent to lead 13-7.

He then played a clever game in the last round and mantained his lead, scoring only two points and losing one point to seal the bout and final encounter against G Satyaraju of Jharkhand who defeated Punjab's Sourav 27-10 in the other semi-final of the category.

In the flyweight (51 kg) category, defending champion H K Belwal of Services was outplayed by Melbourne Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Jitender Kumar of Railway's 27-16 in a fierce encounter which does not reflect in the scoresheet.

Jitender will be up against Mukesh of Chandigarh in the finals, who narrowly got past Uttar Pradesh's Abhisekh 17-12 in the other semi-final.

Meanwhile, in the bantamweight (54 kg) category, National champion Bijender failed to repeat his last year's feat as he was thrashed 14-36 by S Suresh of All India Police.

The policeman now faces young Meghalaya lad Torak in the finals, who outscored Mahesh of Haryana in round three.

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