Vidyarathna boxers excel on day one

National Boxing Championships :

Chris DHAMBARAGE

Vidyarathna University College Horana showed early promise as they dominated the opening days proceedings of the 83rd senior national boxing Championships conducted by the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) of Sri Lanka and worked off at the Sugathadasa indoor Stadium in Colombo yesterday.

Vidyarathna University College produced four winners out of five bouts as they made steady progress towards reaching the finals of the competition which will be held on Saturday at the same venue.

The best effort probably came from Milindu Anuranga who edged out his more fancied opponent D. P. Jayamanna of Slimline BC by a solitary point 9-8 in the fly weight under 51 kg preliminary round bout.

Anuranga who had the honour of representing the country at the recent Youth Commonwealth Games in Pune, India was trailing by a couple of points when the final round commenced with the pressure mounting on him.

Anuranga with experience of having participated in the Asian Championships and World Junior championships stood on his feet and staged a superb late rally before delivering the final blow with a splendid performance.

This was followed by another impressive performance from G. D. Roshan of Vidyarathna University College in the same weight category. The promising boxer who had earlier participated in the World Junior championships in Kazakhastan powered his way to an easy victory on points 19-7 against P. D. M. Ariyaratne of Sri Lanka Police BC.

The others who won their respective preliminary round bouts in the fly weight under 51 weight class were Jayantha Kumara (Sri Lanka Army), M. K. A. Sanjeewa (Slimline), D. R. Wijeratne (Ghandara BC) and P. D. Suresh (Silueta BC).

Meanwhile Sandun Fernando from Vidyarathna University College also produced a pleasing performance to overcome W. A. K. Lasantha of Sri Lanka Air Force BC in the light fly weight under 48 kgs preliminary round bout. In fact Fernando had the credit of outboxing his opponent 22-3 with the referee deciding to stop the contest during the third round.

In addition another boxer from Vidyarathna University College Chatura Chandrasiri cleared his first hurdle with a walk over from M. M. Prabath of Peradeniya BC in the same weight category. S. A. M. Chandrasekera from Sri Lanka Army also reached the second round with a hard fought 11-7 win on points against W. M. C. C. Alwis of Veyangoda BC.

In the feather weight under 57 kgs quarterfinals A. P. S. Dunukeiyanage from Slimline had the better of T. C. K. Weerasinghe of Sri Lanka Navy BC on points 11-9.

The tournament will be continued today with the quarterfinals and the semifinals of the women's events to be worked off commencing at 5.30 p.m.