KARACHI, Aug 12: Sindh made a great start to the PTCL Cup national cadet and junior boxing championship as five of their pugilists boxed their way into the semifinals Monday.

Three boxers from Sindh stormed into cadet semifinals, while two made it to the juniors last four stage, providing the province a confident start at the KPT Sports Complex.

Karachi Port Trust (KPT) were trailing behind Sindh with four of their boxers reaching the semifinals.

The day commenced with eight quarterfinals in cadet class for 15 to 17 years old, while it ended with 12 junior quarterfinal bouts for 17 to 19 years boxers.

Lightweight juniors fight between KPT’s Ghadeer Ali and Sindh’s Masood Ahmad was the fiercest, bloodiest of all that saw the former bludgeoning his way into the semis with a 32-26 victory.

The four-round energy-sapping bout started with two compulsory count limits for shaky Masood in the first and second rounds. Both the fighters provided real fireworks in the third round with Ghadeer’s nose bleeding.

Having height advantage Ghadeer, with his nose still bleeding apparently looked out of steam in the final round, while Masood in total control.

However, while Masood missed what opportunity came his way by committing fouls, gallant Ghadeer, a combination of bravery, fine technique and footwork, unleashed a barrage of punches in the closing stage to earn precious points.

Lightweight Mohammad Ali of KESC earned accolades from a vociferous crowd who forced the referee to stop the contest in the third round when the score was 9-1 against Punjab’s Fahkar Abbas.

Ali, who was on rampage against his rival from the first bell, was too powerful for out of sorts Fakhar who had compulsory counts in all the three rounds that decided the fate of the bout.

Like Fakhar, Balochistan’s Sher Zaman was meted out same treatment by Pakistan Army’s Shoaib Dilmurad. The fight was a replay of Ali-Fakhar bout and culminated with three counts for Sher who was floored in the third round after a mighty blow.

The referee stopped the fight before helping rocking Sher stand and walk to his corner round when the score was 19-6.

Light-flyweight close encounter between Balochistan’s Mohammad Essa and Army’s Mudassir Nazar provided good entertainment to the cheering crowd.

Essa threatened his slightly taller opponent in the third round and even had Mudassir on the ropes at least three times with a barrage of jabs and hooks, most of them off the target.

A better reach and aggresive approach paid off as Muddasir, with some calculated punching, outpointed Essa in the fourth round for 12-8 victory.

Army’s featherweight Asim Rasheed treated his opponent Sikandar Hussain from Balochistan like a punching bag in a fight that also concluded in third round with score at 4-1.

The referee had to intervene and save Sikandar from serious injury since Balochistan boxer’s injured nose was bleeding profusely after a variety of hard-hitting punches.

The referee took minutes to stop another one-sided featherweight clash when NWFP’s Niaz Mohammad got injured in the first round against a fearsome Shahid Hussain of Sindh.

KPT’s bantamweight Khalid Hussain, fresh from a triumph at recently concluded President Cup inter-provincial contest in Sahiwal where he struck a gold, gave a thorough hammering to Army’s Nawaz Dad before carving out a 16-7 win.

The three flyweight fights proved to be practice match for the winners as they chalked up facile victories.

KESC’s Shahid Khan outclassed NWFP’s Shafqat Nazeer 10-0, Sindh’s Arshad crushed Army’s Tariq Zia, and KPT’s Ali Mohammad mercilessly clobbered Punjab’s Adnan Hussain 22-3

In the three-round cadet class competitions, it was the 54kg bout between Punjab’s Tariq Amin and Sindh’s Ghulam Mustafa that could be said a hotly-contested match that saw Tariq winning 6-3.

In 48kg skirmish, Punjab’s Naeem Ahmad gave a bit resistance to Sindh’s Mohammad Ali before crashing out 14-5.

Results:

Cadet Class

Quarterfinals:

39kg: Mohammad Ali (Balochistan) bt Adeel Irfan (NWFP) RSC/III

42kg: Jibran (Sindh) bt Mohammad Waseem (Balochistan) on points

45kg: Zeeshan Saleem Butt (Punjab) bt Ghulam Raza (Balochistan) RSC/H/I

48kg: Wali Mohammad Qambrani (KPT) bt Nasir Masih (NWFP) on points; Mohammad Ali (Sindh) bt Naeem Ahmad (Punjab) 14-5

51kg: Ali Mohammad (Sindh) bt Sheeraz (KPT) RSC/OC/II; Hafiz Khurram (Punjab) bt Zubair (NWFP) 6-0

54kg: Tariq Amin (Punjab) bt Ghulam Mustafa (Sindh) 6-3

Juniors

Quarterfinals:

Light-flyweight: Mudassir Nazar (Army) bt Mohammad Essa (Balochistan) 12-8; Siaman Javed (NWFP) got walkover against Naved Nazar (KPT)

Flyweight: Shahid Khan (KESC) bt Shafqat Nazer 10-0; Arshad (Sindh) bt Tariq Zia (Army) 20-10; Ali Mohammad (KPT) bt Adnan Hussain (Punjab) 22-3

Bantamweight: Izatullah (Balochistan) bt Rahat Khan (NWFP) RSC/I; Khalid Hussain (KPT) bt Nawaz Dad (Army) 16-7

Featherweight: Shahid Hussain (Sindh) bt Niaz Mohammad (NWFP) RSC/I; Asim Rasheed (Army) bt Sikandar Hussain (Balochistan) RSC/III injury

Lightweight: Ghadeer Ali (KPT) bt Masood Ahmad (Sindh) 32-26; Mohammad Ali (KESC) bt Fakhar Abbas (PUnjab) RSC/H/III; Shoaib Dilmurad (Army) bt Sher Zaman (Balochistan) RSC/H/III