With seven golds, Army clinch national boxing title

LAHORE: Pakistan Army successfully defended their National Boxing Championship crown winning the competition’s 36th edition with 125 points at the at the Wapda Sports Complex here on Wednesday.

Hosts Wapda finished second with 85 points followed by Pakistan Air Force who could accumulate a total 45 points to end as the third best side of the event.

Army clinched seven gold and two silver medals while Wapda bagged three gold medals, as many silver and two bronze medals.

All fifteen affiliated units of the Pakistan Boxing Federation participated in the four-day event which witnessed packed to capacity crowds almost on each day.

In the most prominent fight, spirited Ali Ahmed of Wapda — silver medalist at the 2016 South Asian Games — showed courage to earn gold in the Lightweight category, clinching victory from the jaws of defeat against Army’s Ibrahim.

Ali bled from his head during the first round after receiving a strong blow from Ibrahim. The medical team and his coaches suggested Ali to stop the fight but he decided to continue.

The jury and the medical team all failed to convince Ali as the fight halted for six minutes.

However, after Ali was treated with first aid, the fight was resumed despite protest from the Army management that a bleeding boxer should not be allowed to continue.

But the injured Ali was still successful to punch Ibrahim on several occasions and eventually staged an inspirational comeback to win the bout.

Earlier, in the Bantamweight category, a controversy was raised after Wapda’s Naqeebullah was not ready to accept the decision of his defeat against Army’s Muhammad Raza.

Naqeeb refused to leave the boxing ring in protest for 15 minutes before he stepped down weeping.

President Pakistan Boxing Federation Khalid Mahmood said a disciplinary committee had been formed to deal with the act of Naqeeb and to take action under the AIBA rules.

Army’s Muhammad Asif, silver medalist of the SAF Games (Flyweight), Suleman Baloch (Lightwelter weight), Gul Zaib (Welterweight), Zulqarnain (Middleweight), Awais Ali (Light heavyweight) and Ahmed Ali (Heavyweight) also won gold medals.

For Wapda, SAF Games silver medalist Muhibullah earned his first gold in the Lightweight category and another gold in Super heavyweight category where Mir Wais was the winner against Army’s Waqar Ahmad.

Overall, Army and Wapda puglists faced each other in five finals, out of total 10.

Amer Ahmed, president Wapda Sports Board was the chief guest and awarded the prizes.

Results:

Light flyweight: Muhibullah (Wapda) bt Daud Khan (Navy). Muhammad Naeem (Punjab) and Mehroz Ali (PAF) earned bronze medals.

Flyweight: Muhammad Asif (Army) bt Ameer Hamza (Wapda). Inamullah (AJK) and Noor Ali (Railways) earned bronze medals.

Bantamweight: Muhammad Raza (Army) bt Naqeeb Ullah (Wapda). Amir Khan (Navy), Afzal Rehman (KE), bronze medalists.

Lightweight: Ali Ahmed (Wapda) bt Ibrahim (Army). Muhibullah (Balcohistan) and Naimat Ullah (PAF) bronze medalists.

Light Walterweight: Suleman Baloch (Army) bt Adnan Hasan (PAF). Amir Maqsood (KP) and Sardar Muhammad (Wapda) bronze medalists.

Walterweight: Gul Zaib (Army) bt Amir Khan (Wapda). Faraz Ahmed (Sindh) and Ehsanullah (Punjab) bronze medalists.

Middleweight: Zulqarnain (Army) bt Tanveer Ahmed (Navy). Arshad Hussain (PAF), Javed Akhtar (Railways) bronze medalists.

Light heavyweight: Awais Ali (Army) bt Naeem Khan (PAF). Hamza Butt (Punjab), Naimat Ullah (Wapda) bronze medalists.

Heavyweight: Ahmed Ali (Army) bt Ghulam Shabbir (Railways). Usman Ghani (FATA) and Mehmood Ul Hasan (PAF) bronze medalists.