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RAWALPINDI, July 18: The All-Pakistan Brig. Rodham Junior Boxing Championship got under way here at the Army Stadium on Friday evening with Army B’s Sarzameen Khan knocking out his Wapda rival Muhammad Shoaib while Punjab’s Asad Ali defeated Muhammad Ali of Sindh.
A confident Sarzameen, competing in the lightweight category followed up the good work done by another Army boxer, Tariq Zia of the A team who won after the referee stopped his bantamweight contest against NWFP’s Sajjad Ali.
Asad’s light welterweight bout against Ali was well contested but he seemed to take full advantage of his height and landed accurate punches on his much shorter opponent before winning on points.
KPT’s Shahid Khan also won on points in the opening bout of the evening witnessed by a cheering crowd after the championship had been inaugurated by the president of the International Boxing Association, Prof Anwar Chowdhry.
Shahid outpunched Army A’s Nawaz Dad Khan in the light flyweight category and Sajjad Hussain of Railways knocked out Sohail Rafiqui of NWFP in an interesting bout.
The fights were continuing late through the evening and by the time of our going to Press, five bouts had been decided with seven still to be contested.
Earlier, Prof Chowdhry paid tributes to Brig Rodham, the first director general of the Pakistan Sports Board in whose memory the championship is being organised.
He said that it was Rodham who had brought him into boxing and he owed a lot to him.
The head of the Army Sports Directorate, Brig Arif Siddiqui also spoke on the occasion and said that Army was proud to be hosting the championship. “Army has produced a lot of boxers in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” he said.
Results:
Light flyweight: Shahid Khan (KPT) bt Nawaz Dad Khan |(Army A) on points
Bantamweight: Tariq Zia (Army A) bt Sajjad Ali (NWFP) RSC
Lightweight: Sarzameen Khan (Army B) ko Muhammad Shoaib (Wapda)
Light welterweight: Sajjad Hussain (Railways) ko Sohail Rafiqui (NWFP);
Asad Ali (Punjab) bt Muhammad Ali (Sindh).
