Manchester: The Indian boxing campaign began on a dismal note as three pugilists, including light weight hero Dingko Singh, bit the dust in the very first round of the Commonwealth Games boxing event.

While two of the glovemen Dingko Singh and Harpal Singh lost against their first round opponents by slender point margins, Dalvir Singh failed to live up to expectation as he went down by a huge margin to bow out of the championship.

Harpal Singh began with a flourish with a barrage of punches to unsettle his opponent but could not sustain the tempo to eventually go down to Michael Macaque of Mauritius 18-20 in the over 91 kg category.

Dalvir Singh, who looked totally off colour, could not counter his much superior opponent Emanuel Nketu of Lesotho to lose 14-23 in what turned out to be a damper for the Indians in the up to 51 kg category.

Light weight hero of the Bangkok Asian Games, Dingko Singh also began on a impressive note but seemed to lose his rhythm towards the later stages allowing his taller rival Ezekiel Letuka of Lesotho to carve out a narrow 14-12 win to proceed to the second round in the up to 54 kg category.

The seven-member Indian boxing squad is taking part in seven weight categories hoping to improve upon their tally of one silver medal collected in the last 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

With three boxers having made their exit, it is now left to Mohd Ali Quamar, S B Pun, Jitender Kumar and Ramanand to keep the Indian medal hopes alive.

PTI