First ABA meet from June 5 to 8:

Slimline boxers out to dominate

The ABA Men & Women Novices Boxing Meet will be held at Royal College boxing ring Colombo 7 from June 5 to 8, commencing from 4.00 p.m daily. This meet is open to all men & Women boxers over 17 years and below 34 years. Any boxer who has never won any ABA Novices meet and ABA Intermediate Meet before or not won any major meet conducted by the ABA or not represented for Military or Police Boxing Tournaments are eligible to participate in this meet.

Fresher boxers

All fresher boxers are allowed to take part in this meet.

The winners and runner up of this meet will qualify to take part in the prestigious Layton Cup, Clifford Cup and National Boxing Tournaments.

ABA Novices Meet will be conducted according to the international rules. All men bouts will consist of three rounds of three minutes each with one minute interval between them while the women bouts will consist of four rounds of two minutes each with one minute interval between them.

Weight categories

There are 10 weight categories for men starting from 49 Kg (Lt Fly Weight) up to Super Heavy Weight over 91 Kg. There are 10 Weight categories for women from 48 Kg Pin weight) to 81Kg Heavy Weight.

The medical examination and Weigh in will be held on all 4 days from 08.00 am to 9.00 am at Royal College, Colombo 7.

This meet will be mainly dominated by the boxers from Army, Navy, Air Force and Police who will enter their full team as done in previous meets.

Category

There is a restriction of boxers for each weight category as per the ABA?s new rule of allowing only 3 boxers for each weight class for any club.

This year the forces biggest challenge will come from Slimline SC who emerged champions in their first ever MAS Novices Boxing Championships conducted last month.

Apart from that Unichela, Royal MAS Southern, Ghandara, Thurulie, Colombo YMCA, Vidyarathana SC, Sevali, Vidyartha Kingswood, MAS Linea, Silverline and Nugegoda boxing Clubs are expected to enter their best teams to compete at this Meet.

MAS Koggala Boxing Club and Navy are expected to enter a full women boxing team for this meet. Last year 142 male boxers and 21 female boxers took part in this meet. In last year’s tournament Air Force and Navy dominated winning 4 weight categories each in Men Division. Navy further dominated wining 5 weight categories in Women division.

Best boxer

Last year’s women best boxer award was won by Nadeesha Erandhi of MAS Southern BC while men best boxer was HS Danushka of Air Force.

The Chief Guest at this year’s finals will be the Cuban National Coach Julio Santana.