KARACHI: Boxers of the armed forces – Army, Navy and Air Force – earned lion’s share when they grabbed 18 slots in the semi-finals of the 35th National Boxing Championship at the KPT Sports Complex on Friday.

The figure does not include results of the quarter-final bouts of heavy (91 kg) and super heavy (+91 kg) categories that were in progress at the time of filing this report.

Holders Army and Navy topped the list securing seven places apiece in the last four and were followed by the PAF which earned four places.

Hosts Sindh, meanwhile, put up a commendable performance when their five robust pugilists did them proud by making it to the semis. They include Badshah (52 kg), Nadir Baloch (56 kg), Sajid Farman (64 kg), Balach Razzaq (69 kg) and Noor Ali (81 kg).

Wapda, runners-up of the last edition, are lagging behind with four places followed by the HEC three, Railways and Balochistan one apiece.

Forty semi-final places are up for grabs in 10 weights categories of the event.

Results:

Quarter-finals:

60 kg: Salman Baloch (Army) bt Salman Khan (Gilgit-Baltistan) TKO first round; Naimatullah (PAF) bt Shahzaib (HEC) TKO first round; Ali Ahmed (Wapda) bt Hayatullah (Railways) 3-0; Shiraz (Navy) bt Hasanullah (Balochistan) walkover.

64 kg: Zubair Ahmed (HEC) bt Noman Arshad (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) disqualified; Qadir Khan (Navy) bt Mohammad Sharif (Islamabad) 3-0; Gulzaib (Army) bt Sardar Mohammad (Wapda) 2-1; Sajid Farman (Sindh) bt Amir Masood (Fata) 3-0.

69 kg: Amir Khan (Wapda) bt Tayyab Usmani (K-Electric) TKO first round; Muneer Ahmed (Navy) bt Usman Wazir (Gilgit-Baltistan) knockout; Arshad Hussain (PAF) bt Zeeshan Ahmed (Islamabad) 3-0; Balach Razzaq (Sindh) bt Mohammad Qasim (Army) 2-1.

75 kg: Javed Akhtar (Railways) bt Hamza Butt (Punjab) 3-0; Mohammad Amjad (PAF) bt Faisal Khan (Balochistan) 3-0; Mohammad Asif

(Army) bt Farooq Javed (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) TKO second round; Tanveer Ahmed (Navy) bt Afzal Khan (Gilgit-Baltistan) 2-1.

81 kg: Naeem (PAF) bt Zulqarnain (Punjab) 3-0; Noor Ali (Sindh) bt Amir Sohail (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) 2-1; Nisar Ahmed (Wapda) bt Asmatullah (Balochistan) 2-1;

Thursday’s quarter-finals:

49 kg: Muhib Bacha (Wapda) bt Essa (KPT) TKO first round; Dawood (Navy) bt Zafar Khan (Gilgit-Baltistan) 2-1; Shehroz (HEC) bt Ubaid (PAF) 3-0; Hasnain (Army) bt Jehanzaib (KPT) 2-1.

52 kg: Mohamma Nasir ((Navy) bt Mehroz Ali (PAF) 3-0; M. Farooq (Army) bt Hamza (Wapda) 2-1; Syed Asif (HEC) bt Munir Ahmed (Balochistan) 3-0; Badshah (Sindh) bt Akbar Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) TKO first round.

56 kg: Amir Khan (Navy) bt Altaf (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) TKO first round; Farhan (Army) bt Abdul Waheed (PAF) 3-0; Nadir Baloch (Sindh) bt Mohammad Rafiq (Fata) TKO first round; Naqibullah (Wapda) bt Jaffar (Balochistan) 3-0.

Saturday’s fixtures:

Semi-finals start at 2pm.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2015