Favourites make it to finals

Chris Dhambarage

The final line in the men’s and women’s events were completed on the penultimate day of the 81st Clifford Cup boxing meet organised by the Amateur Boxing Association of Sri Lanka and continued at the Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.

All favourites moved into the finals quite easily with the best effort probably coming from K. K. Jayasundera of Sri Lanka Navy BC who edged out his opponent W. M. Karunaratne of Sri Lanka Army BC by a solitary point 9-8 in an exciting light weight under 60 kgs bout.

Jayasundera’s opponent in the final will be M. R. Wekadapola from Slimline BC who had the better of S. A. Ratnayake of Sri Lanka Army BC by a more convincing margin of 17-8 in his semifinal bout.

In addition R. C. Herath of Sri Lanka Army BC had the honour of delivering the only knock out of the day when he overcame W. L. Sandun from Sri Lanka Air Force BC with a head blow in the first round of the heavy weight under 91 kgs semifinal event.

In contrast in the other semifinal of this contest S. C. Rathmalgoda from Sri Lanka Navy BC defeated H. R. Kumara of Sri Lanka Army BC on points 14-9 in a one sided contest.

Meanwhile in the light fly weight under 48 kgs semifinals S. A. Chandrasekera of Sri Lanka Army BC had the better of Gayan Kumara of Ghandara BC on points 17-12 in a close encounter. He will take on his teammate M. C. Tennekoon in the final.

Tennekoon defeated L. S. Lakmal of Slimline BC on points 33-15 in the other semifinal encounter. In another close encounter D. R. Wijeratne of Ghandara BC defeated M. T. Dhakshilath of Unichella on points 15-11 in the fly weight under 51 kgs semifinal bout.

He will take on G. A. Gunatilleke of Sri Lanka Air Force BC who had the better of R. P. Ranaweera of Sri Lanka Army BC on points 26-9. In addition Manju Wannirachchi of Slimline BC had an easy passage into the final of the bantam weight under 54 kgs event.

In the women’s championship Kosala Nilmini (Slimline BC), N. P. Pallekumbura (Ghandara BC), H. E. de Silva (MAS Southern BC), T. S. Nirosha (Sri Lanka Army BC), A. S. Shanthika (Police BC), M. M. Susanthi (MAS Southern BC), N. D. Ekanayake (MAS Southern BC) and D. J. Rajakaruna (Police BC) have qualified to compete in today’s finals which will commence at 5.00 p.m.