Sri Lankan boxers Manju and Anuruddha excel in Chicago

Sri Lanka’s Manju Wanniarachchi and Anuruddha Ratnayake put up a fine performance to win their preliminary round bouts at the AIBA World Boxing Championships which is now in progress in Chicago, United States of America.

National champion Ratnayake was in tremendous form as he outscored his Australian opponent Jimmy Ceapa in the fly weight under 51 kgs weight class event. Ratnayake had built up a huge 20 points to one point lead at the end of the first round and the referee had no hesitation to stop the contest in the second round.

Ratnayake will now be up against Russian Sergey Vodopyanov in the pre quarterfinals of the fly weight under 51 kgs weight class event on Tuesday.

Earlier Sri Lanka’s Manju Wanniarachchi cleared his first hurdle by overcoming Chris Jenkings from Wales on points 34-14 in the bantam weight under 54 kgs weight class event.

Wanniarachchi, a silver medallist at the 2005 Kings Cup meet in Thailand took a commanding 10-5 lead at the completion of the first round. He then consolidated his position by dominating the second round (8-3), third round (9-3) and the fourth round (5-3).

The AIBA World Championships will also serve as a trial to select the Sri Lankan contingent for next years Olympic Games to be held in China. (CD)