Kathmandu, July 31

Manohar Basnet ‘Max’ of Lalitpur entered the 81kg weight category final of the first Inter-club Valleywide Men’s Open Boxing Tournament here at the National Table Tennis Training Centre, Lainchaur today.

Basnet, who was out of the ring for two years after facing disciplinary action from Nepal Boxing Association, defeated Surbindra Bikram Sijapati of Central Boxing Dojo in the semi-finals and set the final date with Dhruba Ranabhat of Tribhuvan Army Club. Ranabhat beat Abhishek Dulal of Banu’s Fitness in the last four encounters.

Likewise, Milandeep Sunuwar of TAC and Sushil Thapa of Naxal entered the 49kg event final. Sunuwar edged past his clubmate Dhanaraj Mahato, while Thapa defeated fellow Naxal boxer Madan Krishna Dangol in the semi-finals. Army’s Sudeep Shrestha and Karan Chaudhary will meet in the final of 52kg. Shrestha recorded a win over Laxman Tamang of Nepal APF Club and Chaudhary beat Suraj Neupane of Kathmandu.

Similarly, TAC’s Munal Pun Magar earned a walkover win from his clubmate Ishwar Pant in the semi-final. He will face Ganesh Thapa, who beat his Naxal teammate Sudeep Lama, in 56kg weight category. Kishor Sharma and Yuvaraj Karki set the all-Naxal final in the 60kg. Sharma beat Suraj Maharjan of Thankot and Karki outplayed Army boxer Karna Oli in the semi-finals.

Also, Mohan Thakuri defeated his TAC clubmate Shyam Kaji Thama and Lalitpur’s Anoj Bhandari beat Ratna Bahadur Budha of Boxing Training Fitness to make it to the 64kg final.

Likewise, Anish Shrestha of Banu’s Fitness and Suraj Maharjan of Kathmandu will meet in the 69kg final. Shrestha defeated Army’s Dipendra Dhami and Maharjan beat Palden Dituchhang of Naxal.

In 75kg event semi-finals, Army’s Harka BK defeated Kamal Khatri of Naxal and Keshab Bam beat Parag Karki of Banu’s Fitness to set all-TAC final.

Meanwhile, Dhana Bahadur Rana will meet Binay KC in all-TAC 91kg final, while Megh Deniel Lama of Central Dojo will face Roshan Godar of Army in above-91kg championship bout. The boxers in these weight categories are directly in finals as only two boxers have registered their names in each section. The finals of the tournament, organised by National Boxing Association Nepal, are on Monday.