Harsha and Indika looking for boxing gold

Chris Dhambarage

BOXING: Sri Lanka's T. B. Harsha Kumara and S. I. Kumara kept their hopes alive of winning a gold medal by reaching the final of their respective bouts on the third day of competition at the 10th South Asian Games boxing meet continued at the Sugathadasa indoor stadium last night.

Harsha Kumara overcame his opponent Dawood Mohamed from Afghanistan on points 46-13 in the 51 kgs class weight category while S. I. Kumara knocked out M. Nazim in the third round of the 69 kgs class weight category.

However Sri Lanka's P. R. D. A. Fernando was beaten at the hands of India's Vijendra with the referee deciding to stop the contest after the score had reached 21-1 in the 75 kgs class event semifinal bout.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka coach George Frometha hailed his teams performances despite only two of them qualifying to play in the finals. The Cuban coach said that he is confident that both Harsha Kumara and Indika Kumara both from Slimline BC will bring glory to the country when they compete in their respective bouts this evening.

Harsha Kumara will take on India's Kareem while Indika Kumara will be up against U. T. Muhummad from Pakistan. Earlier last morning, the Lankan boxers collected a total of four bronze medals on the third day. Even then none of the Sri Lankan boxers really managed to stretch their opponents during their respective bouts and were completely outclassed by their more superior competitors.

L. H. P. S. Weeratunga could not even last the full distance as the referee decided to stop the contest having conceded a lead of over twenty points while competing in the 81 kgs weight category semifinal against India's Dirresh Kumar.

Weeratunga was trailing by a massive 2-17 at the completion of the first round and he eventually surrendered in the second round with a gap of 3-23. Earlier W. R. G. G. Weligalle lost to Syed Asqhar Ali of Pakistan on points 10-25 in the 60 kgs weight category semifinal bout.

Weligalle conceded a 1-4 lead to his opponent during the first round and was always up against it after having conceded a further 4-13 lead by the end of the second round. Weligalle of course did well to keep the distance under the twenty point mark before losing the third round 8-21 and finally going down 10-25.

Sri Lanka's T. M. C. Tennekoon also lost to Sanjay Kishan Kolte of India in the 48 kgs weight category while D. R. P. Dissanayake went down to Harpeet Singh also from India on points 11-35. In addition Sri Lanka's M. I. Hansar was knocked out against another Indian opponent Varghese Johnson in the over 91 kgs weight category in the first round of the bout.

In the other bouts Nisar Khan of Pakistan beat Lobsang of Bhutan in the 48 kgs weight class, Abid Baloch of Pakistan beat Mahesh Rijal of Nepal in the 54 kgs class event, Akhil Kumar of India beat Ali Mithu of Bangladesh in the 54 kgs class, Jai Bhagwan of India beat Abdul Rahim of Bangladesh, and Qadir Sultan of Afghanistan knocked out Bishnu Riyal of Nepal in the 81 kgs class.