The Junior National Boxing Championships conducted by the Amateur Boxing Association got underway at the Royal College boxing ring in Reid Avenue yesterday.

The preliminary round bouts were worked off with nearly 100 pugilists in the fray. The preliminary round contest saw some lesser known boxers from schools that took to boxing recently pull off upset wins to advance to the quarter finals.

Royal Panadura one of the newest entrants to school boxing having taken to the sport just under two years ago saw two of their boxers S. Maduranga and P.D.R. Fernando winning their respective bouts which was the Bantamweight Under 54kg and Featherweight Under 57kg category.

Vidyarathana Pirivena Horana too tasted success with two of their boxers advancing to the quarter finals with G.H.P. Samarasinghe and K.K.R. Priyadharshana winning their contest in the Bantamweight Under 54kg and Featherweight Under 57kg while Bandaranayake MMV Gampaha also had two of their boxers entering the quarters.

In the other bouts K.G.H.S. Navaratne of Pilimatalawa BC, G.D. Roshan of Vidyarathana SC, L.K.G, Rukshana of St Sylvester’s and M.D.S. Dilshan of St Aloysius won their bouts in the Flyweight Under 51kg.

The Bantamweight Under 54kg saw H.S. Dhanushka of Air Force, R.K.C. Ratnayake of Bandaranayake MV Gampaha, N.M. Wijewardena of Kingswood, S.M.C. Samarakoon of DSS Kandy, M.A.P. Kumara of Gamini MMV Ingiriya and N.G.S. Jayaweera of Taxila Horana advancing to the quarters.

O.W.M. Owitipahana of Kingswood, M.G.D. Ariyaratne of Air Force, C.M. Abeywickrama of Carey and P.K.T. Pitigala of St Aloysius were the others to move to the quarters of the Featherweight Under 57kg along with Royal Panadura’s Priyadharshana.The Light Welterweight Under 64kg saw R.M.S. Ratnayake of Air Force, R.M.B. Ratnayake of Dharmaraja, A.A.C. Adikari of Bandaranayake MMV Gampaha and G.S. Madusanka of St Aloysious BC book their berth to the quarter finals.

The quarter finals and semi finals are scheduled to be worked off today and the final is due to be held tomorrow at 5.00 p.m.