Samota wins fifth consecutive gold at Nationals

Commonwealth Games heavy weight champion Paramjeet Samota clinched his fifth consecutive gold at the 58th Senior Men's National Boxing Championship after beating Satish Kumar of Services in the finals in Chennai.

Nanao Singh also cliched the national title in the light fly weight, while in the bantam weight class, Shiva Thapa emerged as the national champion.

Up against the Asian Games bronze medallist, Satish Kumar of the service gave a brilliant account of his agility and skills and stole the show in the first round scoring nine points as opposed to Samota's six.

In the second round, both the boxers went all out and scored seven points apiece but in the final round it was the 23-year-old Samota who had the last laugh as he won the round 19-9 and with it the bout.

"My strategy was to go slow and wear out my opponent and go all out in the third round, I played according to my plan and it paid dividends. This is my fifth consecutive gold and very happy with this accomplishment," the five-time national champion said.

Nanao Singh also capped a brilliant performance with another scintillating victory in the final round of the light fly weight division against Pankaj Saini of Punjab.

The 2009 Asian Championship silver medallist kept the pressure on Saini right from the start with his swift movement and effective left and right jabs and went on to reclaim the National Champion title with a score of 14-6.

It was an emotional victory for the 20-year-old from Manipur, who had to sit out most of last year with injury problems.

"Last year was a difficult period for me with the hand injury, but this year I have done well on the domestic circuit and hope to carry on the form and make it big in the international arena," he said.