Kuttappa, the saving grace

BANGALORE, June 3: Some of it was comical, most of it pedestrian and only one of the opening day8217;s bouts gave the impression that the boxing competitions of the National Games had indeed begun. And it was thanks to Karnataka8217;s promising youngster C Kuttappa.

But the tragedy of this brilliant bout was that another talented light weight boxer, Gautam Tamang of Bengal had to bow out even before exhibiting his potential in full measure at the Games. It was a pity that the talented Tamang had to meet the YMCA international gold medallist in the very first round. With the locals vociferously rooting for him, Kuttappa went after his opponent from the first gong but could not land many of his punches. In fact, Tamang surprised his opponent with a couple of explosive straights. But eventually what made the difference was Kuttappa8217;s impregnable guard and the speed.

The other impressive winner in the light category was Narender Rana of the Services who simply demolished C Singh of Himachal Pradesh.

There was one knock out each in the bantam and welter categories. UP8217;s Misra floored Manipur8217;s NA Singh while C Thapa of Goa took the distinction of scoring the quickest win with a first round knock-out of Nagaland8217;s Anang.