Dingko, Qamar reach final

Favourites Dingko Singh of Services and Mohammed Ali Qamar of Railways raised their performance by a notch to earn their rightful places in the final of the 48the Senior National boxing championships in Delhi on Friday.

Exhibiting superior boxing skills right from the first gong, Asian Games gold medallist Dingko widended his 7-1 lead in the first round to 17-1, with accurate left and right jabs, by the end of the third round against Navin Dev of Haryana before the referee stopped the lop-sided featherweight category contest.

Dropping guard to lure the opponent into being offensive, a technique Dingko seemed to have perfected from his three trips to Cuba, came handy for the 24-year-old boxer as it made Dev lose his rhythm and left him utterly confused.

In the final, Dingko will take on Andhra Pradesh's H Raju, who won a low-quality affair -- 17-4 -- against Delhi's Lalit Singh.

The result of the semi-final bout between Qamar and Rosama Colney of Services was a repeat of last year's National final, as defending champion Qamar mixed his orthodox, south-paw approach effectively to win the light-flyweight battle 13-5.

Railways' Akhil Kumar edged out AP's Sundi Raju, who had upset former national junior champion A Kamesh of Services en route the last four. Raju lost momentum which helped Kumar get ahead by six points in the second round.

Kumar, with his rapid left cross-right jab combination, came back into the flyweight category tussle and took a slender two-point lead (14-12) in the last round which he maintained till the end to emerge victorious.