BRADLEY Saunders made an impressive start to life in Delhi as he beat Grenada’s Dominic Boatswain in just 48 seconds.

After a chaotic opening to the boxing competition, which included catastrophic organisation during the weigh-in, Sedgefield-born Saunders completed a routine first round win.

Saunders, who is a light welterweight, is a man on a mission in Delhi, hell-bent on correcting the wrongs of his Beijing Olympics disappointment in 2008, where he lost to Alexis Vastine of France.

It has been a difficult period for Saunders since his Beijing heartache but the chance to step into the limelight in Delhi and rectify his mistakes in 2008 is a huge motivation for the North-East fighter.

“I think I’ve made my own pressure to be quite honest,” said Saunders.

“My results speak for themselves.

“I’ve had some very good results in the past and people expect a lot from me, so I’m just going to see what happens.

“I had brilliant support from the England fans in the stadium and the Indian people really got behind me.

“I turned around and I could see and hear some of the Indians shouting and cheering for me. To see that and to fight in their back yard is brilliant.”

Next up for Saunders will be New Zealand’s Anthony Taylor in the last 16 tomorrow.

But after his showing first up in Delhi, where he shook Boatswain with a powerful body shot in the first round and then finished him off when his opponent had got up, was eye-catching.

“I was finding my range early on,” added Saunders.

“I always like to start sharp and I was sharp, but he was on his back foot and it was frustrating, typical of some of those styles of fighters.

“This is about me coming out and performing for my country and doing the best I can and doing the North-East, Sedgefield and all my friends and family proud.

“I’ve seen my next opponent once on video and he seems to be a cagey fighter, very, very cagey; tight guard, but he doesn’t let much go and those are the sort of people you’re best off avoiding.”

Elsewhere, Hartlepool’s Jemma Lowe finished sixth in the 50m butterfly final as British rival Fran Halsall – representing England – claimed a shock gold.

Lowe, who was born in England but represents Wales through her father, clocked a time of 27.15 seconds but missed out on a medal as Halsall led home a trio of Australians with a swim of 26.24 seconds.

And with a busy week to come that includes the 100m and 200m butterfly and the medley and freestyle relays Lowe had mixed emotions following her first final of the Games.

“I was just really happy to get into the final because 50 is not my main event and anything can happen,” said Lowe, who competes in the 100m today.

“It was a bit better than yesterday but it was not that great. I think I rushed a little bit and got too excited but just to be in the final was so much fun and to be in front of a crowd like that.

“The thing is with a 50 that everything has to go perfectly.

I definitely wanted to go under 27 and get a 26, but I did not manage that. I forced it a little bit and got too excited.”

Meanwhile, there was joy for Newcastle’s Greco-Roman wrestler Terence Bosson after he fought his way to a silver medal in the Indian capital.

The Newcastle Wrestling Club ace was in fine form on day two in Delhi, winning his qualification match at a canter against Sarmad Afaq from Pakistan 13-1.

And it was a similar story in his semi-final clash as the 25- year-old made light work of South African Marius Loots, emerging a 9-0 winner.

That meant Bosson’s confidence was sky high heading into the gold-medal clash but he more than met his match in the final going down to Indian Ravinder Singh.

The home favourite dominated from the word go at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex eventually emerging 9-0 winner to claim gold and leave South-African born Bosson with silver.

“I thought I could win but the first round put me off. He drained me of a lot of energy and that made it hard,” he said. “But I am proud of what I’ve done. It’s been a good experience but he was very hard and aggressive. It was tactics against tactics.”

■ SPAR, there for you and our GB athletes, proud supporters since 2004 www.spar.co.uk