The Hindu : Remarkable comeback by Thappa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 16, 2002

Sport

Sport - Boxing

Remarkable comeback by Thappa
By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MARCH 15. All bouts, barring one, went on expected lines as the seventh Federation Cup boxing championship began at the Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium here on Friday.

There were 48 bouts today and the crowded programme commenced without much fanfare. In fact, the organisers got the bouts going even before the formal inauguration by Mr. Venkatramani, Chief General Manager, BSNL, the main sponsor.

The surprise part of the schedule came in the ring when A. Kamesh of Services made his exit after dropping S.K. Thappa of Assam Rifles in the first round itself with a solid left hook. Thappa's comeback was remarkable as he, after surviving the mandatory count, went on the offensive to shock Kamesh. The Armyman was stunned by the quick one-two punches and tried to dodge, but Thappa was bang on target and won the light fly bout on points.

Another interesting contest was the one between the stocky Chananda Kuttappa of Services and Andhra Pradesh's R. Selvakumar. AP coach Chiranjeevi was sitting at the side of the ring and watching his tall ward try to hustle the rival with his long arm punches.

But Kuttappa, a hard puncher, did not let go the chance whenever he moved closer to his rival and clinched the light weight bout on points.

The tall Tamil Nadu lad P. Rajesh's excellent defence helped him dodge Prakash Gurung of Services. However, Rajesh's punches were not on target and his weak attempts did not make any impact on the judges. Gurung fought his way in the third and fourth rounds when he realised that he was down and gave it everything. Poor Rajesh had no counter punches to consolidate his position in the bantamweight contest.

The results:

Light fly: Ramesh Singh (Chand) lost to S.B. Thappa (Assam Rif.) on pts; Fly: Sambhudass (Ben) bt Jayant Shinde (Mah) on pts, Sohan Singh (Chan) bt Lakshmikanth Rane (Goa) on pts., S.K. Thappa (AR) beat A. Kamesh (Services) on pts; Bantam: Arum Saini (Har) lost to Sujit Biswa (AR) on pts, Ramesh Kumar Upadhyay (Ben) lost to Viswanath Harichand (Goa) on pts, Prakash Gurung (Services) bt P. Rajesh (TN-G) on pts; Feather: Dileep Singh Bisht (CISF) bt J. Edward (TN-Y) on pts; Light: R. Selvakumar (AP) lost to Chananda Kuttappa (Services) on pts, D. Mukilan (TN) bt Amit Kumar (Del) on pts, Suresh (CISF) bt Vikas Bharadwaj (Chand) on pts, T. Rakshit (Ben) lost to Praveen (Goa) on pts.

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