KARACHI, June 8: Hosts Pakistan Navy won five gold medals to lift the national boxing championship title at Naval Physical Training and Sports Centre on Sunday.

Apart from five golds, Navy clinched three silver and two bronze medals, while Wapda were declared runners-up with two gold, two silver and equal number of bronze. PAF got two gold and equal number of bronze.

The absence of the defending champions Pakistan Army took the gloss off the championship participated by 57 boxers from nine teams, while last year 112 pugilists from 12 teams took part.

Interestingly, while Pakistan Boxing Federation secretary Shakeel Durrani is also the president of the Sindh Boxing Association, only four Sindh boxers took part from Sindh as compared to last year’s figures of eight.

Karachi Port Trust (KPT), who had sponsored their boxers for international tournaments abroad, could conjure up only one gold, one silver and three bronze medals.

Ironically, top national boxers belonging to KPT — featherweight Merhrullah, lightweight Asghar Ali Shah, light-flyweight Mohammad Nisar and lightweight Zahid Hussain did not take part in the prestigious event.

Surprisingly, lightweight Karrar Hussain, who has been attached with KPT for the last several months, represented Navy in the event while drawing salary from both departments.

Since 2003, Mehrullah and Asghar have been absent from the national championships and other major national level tournaments, although they featured in almost every major international event.

Other prominent boxers who did not take part in the championship are flyweight Noman Kareem, welterweight Faisal Kareem, light-heavyweight Tanvir Shaukat, heavyweight Shaukat Ali and super-heavyweight Abdul Razzaq – all from Army.

As for Punjab, 11 boxers too part in last edition of the championship, while only one boxer represented the province this year.

Results (final):

Light-flyweight: Abdul Raziq (Navy) bt Gulfaraz (NWFP).

Flyweight: Jawad Hussain Shah (Navy) bt Mohibullah (Balochistan). Abdullah Qambrani (KPT) and Imran Hafeez (Wapda) (bronze).

Bantamweight: Abid Ali (KESC) bt Mohammad Pervez (Navy). Mohammad Amjad (PAF) and Mohammad Ali (KPT) (bronze).

Featherweight: Sohail Baloch (PAF) bt Bakht Hussain (Navy). Shahid Jan (KPT) and Shoaib Rasheed (KESC) (bronze).

Lightweight: Sajid Raja (PAF) bt Karrar Hussain (Navy). Mohammad Younis (Wapda) and Abdul Ali (Balochistan) (bronze).

Light-welterweight: Sahib Khan (Wapda) bt Jan Mohammad (KPT). Shahid Hussain (Navy) and Mohammad Zubair (Balochistan) (bronze).

Welterweight: Dur Mohammad (KPT) bt Sikandar Hussain (Wapda). Nisar Ahmad (Balochistan) and Syed Amir Raza (Navy) (bronze).

Middleweight: Ejaz Mahmood (Navy) bt Mohammad Eshan (Punjab). Mohammad Tahir (Balochistan) and Mohammad Afzal (NWFP) (bronze).

Light-heavyweight: Allah Bukhsh (Navy) bt Hassan Ali (Wapda). Mohammad Zahoor (NWFP) (bronze).

Heavyweight: Syed Ibne Raza (Navy) bt Pukar Khan (Balochistan). Khurram (PAF) (bronze).

Super-heavyweight: Muzaffar (Wapda) bt Riaz Ahmad (Balochistan). Mohammad Naeem (Navy) and Qasim (PAF) (bronze).

Medals table (tabulated as teams, gold, silver, bronze):