India emerged champions in the inaugural Duel Boxing Championship against Sri Lanka which was held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium yesterday and carried away the A&E Challenge Cup which was on offer.
Manju Wanniarachchi who pipped India’s Benjamin Lakra in action yesterday.
-Picture by Ranjith Perera. |
The seven bout contest comprising three in the women’s and four in the men’s category saw the Indians completely dominating the proceedings. Of the seven bouts they made a clean white wash in the women’s category by winning all the three bouts.
In the men’s category the two teams shared two bouts each. The meet started off with the women’s bouts where Kosala Nilimini gave India’s Pinki Jangra some anxious moments in the Light Flyweight Under 48kgs category.
The three round contest saw the Indian edging out her Sri Lankan opponent 3-2. There was much expectation after the good show put in by Nilmini but that was not to be as the Indian girls completely dominated the remaining two bouts. Nilmini for her effort was adjudged the best loser of the meet.
The Flyweight Under 51kgs bout saw India’s Meena Kumari out foxing Niarnjala Weeraratne 6-0 while Preeti Beniwal who took the best boxers award completely outclassed the hapless Niarnjala Senanayake 7-0 in the Lightweight Under 60gs.
In the men’s category Sri Lanka got off to a flying start with T.M.C. Tennekoon taking the Light Flyweight Under 49kgs bout by overcoming Murugam Mahadevan.
The completion of the first round gave the impression that it was going to be a closely contested affair with Mahadevan putting up one point which was the only scoring punch. But from there on it turned to be a one sided affair with Tennekoon who used his experience having things his own way.
The second round saw Tennekoon putting up ten points to Mahadevan’s one which was followed by the Sri Lankan adding a further four to the Indians two to win the bout 14-6.
The second bout which was the Flyweight Under 52kgs saw Sri Lanka’s D.M. Samarasekera take a lead of 3-1 over India’s Santosh Harijan after a scoreless first round. But the Indian bounced back to add three points in the crucial and final round to take the fight 4-3.
One of Sri Lanka’s most experienced pugilist Manju Wanniarachchi who normally fights in the Bantamweight category and fighting in a different category which was the Featherweight Under 56kgs saw him being awarded the fight after he locked horns at three a piece against Benjamin Lakra.
The jury gave the option for the judges to take a final decision in which Wanniarachchi came out the winner due to better boxing or not taking the rough side of the game. According to an unofficial Wanniarachchi had to switch to this category as his pet event is not being contested now.
There was much expectation again in the final bout of the day which was the Lightweight Under 60kgs with another experience Sri Lanka boxer in Kamal Sameera taking on Vikash Malik.
It was a ding dong battle as Malik put in stiff resistance and succeeded in restricting Sameera to just one point in the first round. The completion of the second round saw Sameera holding on to a one point lead before disappointing the vast crowd of over 7.000 spectators by handing down the win to Malik at the ring of the final bell 5-4.
Dian the former president of the ABA speaking to the Sunday Times after the conclusion of the meet said that the boys should have done better and on the other hand the judges were too strict.
But all in all the boxers gained the much needed experience in preparation for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games but they should not be disheartened and they are capable of performing better.
Nevertheless this is a good opening for the two countries and according to Dian the Indians were happy and satisfied that this exchange would go a long way in taking boxing of the two countries to greater heights. |
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