GUWAHATI, Dec 11 - Olympian and local boy Shiva Thapa today made his way through a bloodied forehead to assure himself a medal in the lightweight category (60kg) of the 1st Elite (senior) Men�s National Boxing Championship here.
It wasn�t an easy ride for Shiva as his campaign was thrown into jeopardy due to the injury in the quarterfinal.
A former Asian champion and a two-time Olympian, was cruising along against All India Police�s Ashok who head-butted the local favourite to slow him down in the final few seconds of the second round.
The head butt resulted in a bleeding forehead but he still managed to win the bout 5-0 but had to be rushed to a doctor.
Asian Championships silver-medallist L Devendro Singh had to dig hard to eke out a 3-2 win against Haryana�s Niraj in the 52kg category.
Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar competing for the Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) in the 69kg category had a tough one against Jammu and Kashmir�s Ashish but managed to dominate the third round for a split 4-1 verdict in his favour.
Two-time former national champion Jasveer Singh (91kg) lost to Madhya Pradesh�s Gaurav after enduring a cut on his forehead.
There was a controversy surrounding RSPB as both Andhra Pradesh and Haryana protested against what they called unfair decisions against their boxers � Durga Rao (60kg) and Ashish (64kg).
Durga Rao lost to Vikas Malik while Ashish went down to Rohit Tokas. Both the wining boxers belonged to RSPB.