Layton Cup boxing meet begins today

The 67th men's and women's Layton Cup boxing meet conducted by the Amateur Boxing Association of Sri Lanka will be worked off from July 27 to 30 at the Sugathadasa indoor stadium in Colombo.

This meet will be considered as the trials for the World Boxing Championships scheduled to be held in Milan, Italy in October and for the 6th Asian Women's Indoor Games scheduled to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam in November 2009.

This meet will also serve as the 2nd trial meet to select the 20 boxers for the Dhaka South Asian Games Boxing pool.

The Layton Cup meet started in 1942 during the British rule in Sri Lanka, when top-ranking boxers, particularly in the three Armed Forces fought for major honours with the Cup being awarded to the Most Scientific Boxer.

Last year the honour was taken away by H. P. L. Jayantha Kumara of Army BC.

This meet will be open to the winners and runner up of Novices, Intermediate, Stubbs Shield and winners of Junior Nationals Championships.

In addition to this any boxer who previously took part in any Major meet conducted by the ABA of Sri Lanka is qualified to take part in this meet. The qualified boxers should be over 17 years and below 34 years to compete at this meet.

This year's meet will once again be a clash among the Armed Forces. Navy and Air Force have come up with their top boxers with Army entering a full team. The Police, Slimline, Kalutara District Boxing Association, Unichela, MAS Southern, Vidyarathana, Silverline, Kingswood, Polonnaruwa Boxing Association and Siluta BC also have entered their top boxers at this meet.

Slimline boxers who are holding the national titles in lower weight classes are likely to show their top performance in this meet. All the last year's National Champions except Bantam Weight Champion Manju Wanniarachchi will compete at this meet.

The winners, runner ups and 3rd places will receive medals and certificates. The best boxer of the meet will receive the Layton Cup awarded by Admiral Sir Jeffery Layton. The men's bout will be 3 rounds of 3 minutes each and the women's bouts will be 4 rounds of 2 minutes each with 1 minute rest between each round. ABA will provide the gloves and head guards according to the International standard.

Own gloves will not be allowed to use.

(CD)