On a day when the hosts’ pugilists called the shots claiming nine out of the 11 gold on offer, three-time Youth National champion Santosh eased himself to an authoritative victory over a battling Arjun at the Sree Kanteerava indoor stadium.
A gold medallist at the 2008 Commonwealth Games in Pune, Santosh didn’t disappoint, with his superior ring movement and timing forcing his Puducherry rival to run for cover.
Arjun kick-started the bout in confident fashion. He threw in the punches early on but Santosh evaded them with ease before counter-punching Arjun on many occasions and cornering him at least twice.
A brutal right from Santosh in the second minute of the second round swelled Arjun’s left eye and the Puducherry found it hard to concentrate from then on. Santosh cashed in on the opportunity piling on punches upon punches to swell his points.
While Arjun showed good stomach for the battle despite his obvious discomfort, Santosh hardly appeared complacent and kept Arjun consistently on his toes before wrapping up win.
Results (all finals, Karnataka unless stated): 48 kg: Pratip Singh (Ker) bt Amarjeet Singh on points.
51 kg: Sanjay Kolthe (TN) bt Mahimainathan on points. 54 kg: Raj Kumar bt Attisamuddin (TN) on points.
57 kg: Rojith Kumar bt Pritham Sahu (Ker) by RSC. 60 kg: M Karthik bt Saravanan (Ker) by RSC. 64 kg: V Santosh Kumar bt Arjun (Pud) on points.
69 kg: Ramalingham bt G Vivek on points. 75 kg: M Govindaraj bt Karthikeyan (TN) on points. 81 kg: Prasanth Patil bt Srinivas (AP) on points. 91 kg: Sunil bt Ganesh (Pud) retd. 91+ kg: Tharapathi bt Arun Kumar (TN) by RSC.
Individual awards: Best boxer: M Karthik; Best loser: M Rahman; Most promising boxer: Sanjay Kolthe (TN). Overall champions: Karnataka ‘A’ (53 points) 1; TN (31) 2.
