| Sports |
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Pugilist Nilmini’s Russia with love |
Nilmini Jayasinghe created history in the local women’s boxing arena when she bagged a gold medal in the International Women’s Boxing Championship which is in progress now at St Petersburg in Russia.
Nilmini who qualified to the final of the Under 51kgs Flyweight category defeated her Canadian opponent Mandy Dujold to create history in the local boxing arena to become the first ever local woman boxer to win a gold medal outside the Asian circuit women’s boxing meet for Sri Lanka.
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| Nilmini Jayasinghe |
The best effort in an international meet of a Sri Lanka woman boxer was by Anusha Kodituwakku who won a gold medal in the Asian Championship held in Vietnam in 2006 in which Nilmini also participated where she won a bronze medal.
Nilmini’s win was a close fight as she won with a wafer thin margin of 6-5. Her achievement was something special having defeated reputed boxers from Ukraine and Russia earlier in the quarter and semi final before advancing to the final.
Sri Lanka was represented by two boxers Anusha Kodituwakku who fought in the under 48kgs light flyweight category and Nilmini. Anusha was unfortunate to bow out in the semi final being beaten by her Russian opponent Svetlana Gnevansa, but won a bronze medal.
The championship conducted by the AIBA which got underway in July was contested by 18 countries namely Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, India, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Morocco, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.
The championship will come to a close today.
-MSA |
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