Lankan women boxers fail in India

BOXING: The Sri Lankan women boxers failed to make an impact and were knocked out from the preliminary round at the 4th World Women's Boxing Championships which is now in progress in New Delhi, India.

The best effort came from Asian Champion Anusha Kodituwakku who unfortunately lost her bout on points against her Sweden opponent. The scores were level 13-13 in the preliminary bout and the scores were still level 24-24 after the individual score was counted.

Then the judges were asked to press the buttons and the results was 3-2 in favour of the Sweden boxer. The Sweden boxer won because all three judges were Europeans.

However, Korea and India pressed in favour of Sri Lanka. Meanwhile Nilmini Jayasinghe put up a fine performance before going down on points 12-24 to a Sweden boxer after having fought hard during all three rounds in the quarterfinals. The fighting spirit of Nilmini Jayasinghe was commended by lot of coaches after the event.

Earlier Jayasinghe had overcome an Ukrainian boxer on points during a preliminary round bout while her opponent had beaten a Kazakhastan competitor. Sri Lanka's M. M. Susanthi also lost on points to an Ukrainian boxer during the preliminary round two events. In addition Chandrika Guruge was outscored by former World Champion of India during the second round.

Niluka Karunaratne was up against an Argentine boxer and the referee decided to stop the contest during the second round after the Sri Lankan boxer was outscored. A total of over 191 boxers from 33 countries are participating in this championship in different weight categories.

C.D