Ballari (Karnataka) [India], September 15 (ANI): Sumit Sangwan and Neeraj Swami were among the boxers to register victories on the opening day of the 5th Elite Men's National Boxing Championships at the Inspire Institute of Sports in Bellary on Wednesday.

Haryana pugilist Sumit, who had participated in the 2012 London Olympics, notched up a comfortable win over Andhra Pradesh's Harish Prasadula by a unanimous margin in the 86kg opening round match.

The 2019 President's Cup gold-medallist Neeraj also put up an impressive show and made a winning start to his campaign in the prestigious tournament, which returned after a year due to COVID-19 pandemic. Representing Delhi, Neeraj completed a dominating 5-0 victory against Haryana's Sagar in the 48kg category.

Punjab's Rajpinder Singh also outpunched his opponent Rahul Niltu from Himachal Pradesh to secure 5-0 win in 54 kg opening round bout.

Among other boxers who made impressive starts on Day 1 were Maharashtra's Nikhil Dubey and Chhattisgarh's Dinesh Kumar. Playing in the 75kg category, both the boxers claimed contrasting victories. While Nikhil was declared as the winner by Referee Stopping the Contest (RSC) verdict in the first round against Gujarat's Sejad Lilgar, Dinesh had to work hard against Bengal's Abhishek Shaw during his close 3-2 win.

The seven-day event has been witnessing participation of close to 400 boxers from 35 states/UT units and boards. The tournament has been conducted in 13 categories as per the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) revised weight divisions. The finals of the ongoing championships will be played on September 21.

The gold medallists will book themselves a direct berth for the upcoming 2021 AIBA Elite Men's World Boxing Championships which is scheduled in Belgrade, Serbia from October 24 to November 6.

The gold and silver medal-winning boxers of each category from the ongoing event will also earn themselves direct entries into the national coaching camp.

The National Championships will be followed by selection trials, which will be played till September 24 to finalise the remaining two names for the national camp from each category.

In the selection trials, two bronze medallists of the Nationals will compete alongside the boxers representing the second team of Top-3 teams from the 2019 National Championships--SSCB, RSPB and Haryana. The announcement of the complete list of campers will be made on September 24 on the basis of the results of the selection trials. (ANI)