Kasun, Kumari emerge top Boxers
Kasun Maduranga of Hela BC and Kumari Gamage of MAS Linea were adjudged the best boxers at the ABA Men’s and Women’s Novices Boxing Championships held at the Royal MAS Arena boxing ring at Reid Avenue.
Kasun came out victorious with ease against U.R.N.K. Rajapakse of Army while Kumari got the better of D.M.N. Subashini also of the Army. Buddika Manaram of MAS Slimline and Stacy Berenger of Hela BC were adjudged the best losers in the two categories.
Buddika was unfortunate as he went down to Army Red’s Udaya Kumara while Stacy who was the better of the two boxers that contested in the Middleweight 69kg bout was also unfortunate to come out second best to K.S. Chethana of MAS Thurulie.
In the men’s category Army BC who fielded the highest number of boxers dominated the meet by winning seven gold medals while Air Force, MAS Slimline and the newly formed club Hela BC won gold each.
MAS Thurulie and MAS Linea two clusters of MAS Holdings won two gold medals each in the women’s category while newly formed Hela BC won the other gold medal.
This was the first meet held by the newly ABA committee saw the participation of 117 boxers in the male category and 18 in the women’s category representing 20 clubs around the island and was open to boxers between the age group of over 19 and below 40 years.
The winners and runner up of this meet will qualify to take part in major tournaments like Layton Cup, Clifford Cup and National Boxing Championships from this year.
The chief guest of the tournament was SP Saman Gunarathna of Special Task Force who was a former national champion who represented Sri Lanka at the SAF, Asian Boxing Championships and Commonwealth Games during 1989 to 1991 period.
Light Flyweight 46-48kg – Kumari Gamage (MAS Linea) beat D.M.N. Subashini (Army). Flyweight 51kg – K.W.I.S. Fernando (MAS Thurulie) beat P.K.R. Kaushalya (MAS Casual). Bantamweight 54kg – M.G.M.T. Dasunika (Hela BC) beat R.K.A.A. Ranasinghe (MAS Casual). Lightweight 57kg – A.K.C.V. Kumari (MAS Linea) beat B.D.R. Mendis (MAS Casual). Middleweight 69kg – K.S. Chethana (MAS Thurulie) beat Stacy Berenger (Hela BC).
Light Flyweight 46-49kg – K.A.S.K. Abeygunawardena (Army) beat W.I. Sanjaya (MAS Slimilne). Flyweight 52kg – M.M. Udaya Kumara (Army Red) beat G.W. Manaram (MAS Slimline). Bantamweight 56kg – Kasun Maduranga (Hela BC) beat U.R.N.K. Rajapakse (Army). Lightweight 60kg – A. Hafeel (YMCA Colombo) beat E.G.M.M. Jayaweera (Army). Light Welterweight 64kg – K.S. Bhanuka (MAS Slimline) beat G.P.D.K. Sameera (Army). Welterweight 69kg – V. Niklas (Army Red) beat W.A.M. Abeyratne (Air Force). Middleweight 75kg – D.A. Dasanayake (Army) beat D.S.D. Premakumara (Army). Light Heavyweight 81kg – A.L. Amarasinghe (Army) beat P.S. Tillekeratne (Air Force Red). Heavyweight 91kg – W.A.R. Sandakelum (Army) beat W.A.N.P. Wariyaperuma (Army Red). Super Heavyweight over91kg – W.G.M.K. Jayasena (Army) beat A.G.S.P. Gunawardena (Army Red).