Wrestling bouts, a crowd puller

Medical education and district in-charge minister S A Ramdas inaugurated the programme and 63-year-old wrestler Puttaswamy carried the sports torch. The event will witness 25 pairs slugging it out in the event.

However, the inauguration was a dream come true for pailwan Puttaswamy, who carried the wrestling torch to the ‘akhada’.  Speaking to Deccan Herald, the veteran wrestler said that his father pailwan Chikkaveerappa had carried the sports torch 45 years ago and his uncle pailwan Siddaiah had carried the torch 15 years ago. He said that he had won the national-level wrestling competition in Delhi in 1973 in the 74kg division.

KHB chairman G T Devegowda, Mayor Pushapalatha Chikkanna, deputy mayor M J Ravikumar  were present.