Light heavyweight finalists found

Chris Dhambarage

BOXING: The final line up in the light heavy weight under 81 kg and the quarterfinal line up in the flyweight under 51 kg event was completed on the second day of the Layton Cup boxing meet continued at the Sugathadasa indoor stadium yesterday.

The meet organised and conducted by the Amateur Boxing Association of Sri Lanka will also serve as the final trial to select the Sri Lanka squad for the South Asian Games to be staged in August this year. In addition the Amateur Boxing Association of Sri Lanka is planning to select two separate squads in preparation for two international tournaments which will be held later this year.

Two soldiers R. G. P. P. Rathnakge and L. H. P. S. Weeratunga will figure in the final of the light heavyweight under 81 kg bout after both won their respective semifinal bouts quite convincingly. The former edged out his teammate K. M. P. Kumara on points 28-21 and the latter also overcame his teammate A. H. S. S. Athukorale on points 24-10.

Meanwhile in the fly weight under 51 kg quarterfinals K. A. C. N. Alexander of Unichela outscored M. U. K. Guruge from VCK BC with the referee deciding to stop the contest in the third round.

Another strong contender for the title T. B. Harsha Kumara from Slimline BC also reached the semifinals as he outscored his teammate Bandula Wickremasinghe with the referee again deciding to stop the contest in the second round.

In addition C. P. Abeyratne of Slimline BC knocked out K. M. Sugathadasa of Unichela SC in the third round after he had trailed 23-28 at that stage.

In the last quarterfinal of the fly weight under 51 kg event Jayantha Kumara of Sri Lanka Army BC edged out his team mate S. R. R. Ranaweera on points 10-7 in a close encounter.

In the lightweight under 60 kg quarterfinals S. Senaratne (Police BC) overcame W. P. S. Nandasena (Sri Lanka Army BC) 31-17, S. Wettasinghe (Air Force BC) overcame T. U. Madhushanka (Unichela) 23-13, G. Weligalla (Sri Lanka Army BC) outclassed S. Karunaratne (Veyangoda BC) and R. M. U. Bandara (Slimline BC) overcame H. R. Kodituwakku (Police BC) on points 24-7.