Double delight for Railways

CHENNAI, July 13 (UNI): Railways emerged the overall champions annexing both the men's and women's team championship in the SRM-Federation Cup boxing championship here today.

While Railways men dethroned Services with the best tally of 32 points and won the prize money of Rs 50,000, Services tallied 28 points.

They had to be content with the runner-up purse of Rs 30,000.

Jharkhand who had made considerable inroads into the traditionally strong Railway-Services bastion, finished third with25 points and took home Rs 20,000.

In the women's section, there was no stopping Railways as they retained the title with 38 points.

Haryana finished a distant second with 16 points and Manipur third with 15 points.

Dilbag Singh of Railways (Welter weight) and world champion Sarita Devi of Manipur (Feather) were adjudged as the best boxers of the tournament.

Promising Tamil Nadu juniors Parveen and D Rajesh were declared best losers.

Of the 11 finals in the men's Railways won four and Services won two.

Jharkhand proved that they were a force to reckon with winning three finals and in the process spoiling the party of thetraditional powerhouses Railways and Services.

Delhi bagged the other two golds.

In the women's too it turned out be difficult to look beyond Railways as the champion outfit bagged six of the 12 golds, with Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, haryana, Assam and Kerala oneeach.

Though a majority of bouts in the men's section were decided on points, the contest that drew the crowd to the feet was the one between G Satyaraju of Jharkhand and Vikas Malik of Railways in the Light Welter final.

The lanky Jharkhand pugilist emerged as the surprise winner with a 40-33 verdict, but not before he got enough hammering from his famed rival, especially in the final round.

Using his reach to the best advantage, Satyaraju landed a couple of left upper cuts and right jabs on his rival to gain 8-1 lead at the end of first round.

But the stoic Railway boxer came back well with some deadly left hooks as he narrowed down the lead to 11-18 at the end of second round.

The contest became intriguing as both traded blows and picked points.Raju was all over Vikas in the third round and increased the lead before Vikas Malik pounded his rival with a series of left uppercuts and jabs.

Satyaraju appeared visibly tired, but he managed to cling on to the lead to win on points.

Results (finals): Men: Light Fly: M Zawhly (SSCB) lost to Manwar Hussain (Rlys) 26-29 onpts; Fly: Ghulam Ghouse (Jhar) lost to Jonathan (SSCB) 12-26 on pts; Bantam: Komal Yadav (SSCB) lost to Inder Kumar Singh (Jhar) RSC-Istround.

Feather: D Kannan (Jhar) bt Siddarth (rlys) 31-20 on pts; Light: Ravinder Sani (Rlys) bt A Naobamettei (SSCB) 36-26 on pts; Light Welter: Vikas Malik (Rlys) lost to G Satyaraju (Jhar) 33-40 on points.

Welter: Gurpal Singh (SSCB) lost to Dilbag Singh (Rlys) RSC-OS-2ndround Middle: Gurdev Singh (SSCB) bt Surender (Har) 22-14 on pts Light Heavy: Gurprem prem (SSCB) lost to Vikas Singh (Del) 34-39 onpts Heavy: Naresh (Har) lost to Manoj Kumar (del) 12-24 on pts Super Heavy: Gurmal (SSCB) lost to Paramjeet (Rlys) RSC-OS 3rd RoundWomen: Pin: W Jerina (Manipur) lost to Sonia (TN) RSC-OS 3rd round Light fly:Kalpana (Rlys) lost to Kanakadurga (AP) 10-17 on pts Fly: Chhote Loura (Rlys) bt Sujata Rani (Assam) RSC-OS-3rd round Light Bantam: Basanti Chanu (Mpr) lost to Sushma Kumari (Rlys) 19-22 on pts Bantam: N kanakalakshmi (AP) lost to Sunita Yadav (Rlys) RSC-OS-2ndround Feather: Pavitra (har) lost to L Sarita Devi (Mpr) RSC-OS-2nd round Light: N Usha (Rlys) bt Neetu (Delhi) 13-3 on pts Light Welter: Rinky Singh (AP) lost to Ashwati Prabha (Rlys) RSC-OS-3rd round Welter: L Radia (Mpr) lost to Kavita Goyat (Har) RSC-)S-2nd round Light Middle: Ashwaty Mol (Rlys) bt Ashla Thomas (Ker) RSC-OS-2ndround Light Heavy: Surjan Bagam (Assam) bt Kavitha (Har) retd Ist round Heavy: N Swarna Priya (Rlys) lost to K C Lekha (Ker) RSC-OS-1stround.