Sunil survives late Suranjoy scare

New Delhi, Aug 25 (UNI) Commonwealth champion Sunil Kumar warded off a late challenge from Maharashtra's Suranjoy to beat him 16-14 in the Fly Wt (51 kgs) category at the 54th Senior Men National Boxing Championship here today.

The 17-year-old Haryana lad started the bout in impressive style, using his upper cuts and jabs to great effect to end round one with a 5-2 lead.

He showed great techniques to maintain his three points advantage in round two to lead 8-5.

However, it was a different ball game in round three, as Sunil lost his composure in between, which saw Suranjoy coming back into the match and take the lead for the first time at 11-12.

The late fight back from the young Maharashtrian also rose expectations of the first and biggest upset in the opening day of the championship. But it was not destined to happen, as Sunil used his international experience to great effect, pocketing five vital points in the last round to register the bout in his favour at 16-14.

Meanwhile, in the other completed matches of the 51 kg category, Asian bronze medallist Jitender Kumar of Railways beat Madhya Pradesh's Manoj, Mukesh (Chandigarh) beat Dhruv (Gujrat), Raj Kumar (Karnataka) beat Lagoram (Manipur).

In the 48 kg category, Assam's Sankar beat Jitendra of BSF.

UNI