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Sports

KO punch by the Liners
By M. Shamil Amit
Slimline BC emerged champions at the 80th National Boxing Championship concluded at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium yesterday. The winners accumulated 39 points with Army ‘A’ having to play second fiddle for the third successive time behind Slimline with 31 points. Police were third with 16 points.

The meet began with the Super Heavyweight bout over 91 between Navy’s D.P.M.H. Dharmasiri and N.K.S. Silva of Army ‘B’ which saw the former proving to be too good for his opponent, outclassing him at 23-3. Army ‘A’ opened their account in the next event which was the Heavyweight Under 91 with H.M.S.P. Wanninayake brushing off the challenge offered to him by R.M.S.N. Bandara of Air Force ‘A’ at 25-12.

The Light Heavyweight Under 81kgs bout between H.M.S.P. Jayasinghe of Police ‘A’ and R.M.S.N. Bandara of Army ‘A’ was a one sided affair with Jayasinghe cruising to an easy 27-09 win. P.R.D.A. Fernando gave Army ‘A’ their second win when he took the Middleweight Under 75 outfoxing Police ‘A’s W.M.T. Ratnayake, but Fernando had to pull out all the tricks before winning 30-29.The loser for his gallant fight was awarded the best losers prize.From there on it was Slimline ‘A’ all the way as they went on to win five bouts at a stretch. The first was in the Welterweight Under 69 where S.I. Kumara got the better of another Police boxer W.M.C.S. Bandara by 26-09.

The second was from seasoned boxer W.M.R. Wekadapola who had a close call but won the Light Welterweight Under 64 defeating R.P. Weerasinghe of Air Force 14-10.

The champion team’s third win was in the Lightweight Under 60 where R.M.U. Bandara had no difficulty in overcoming A.S. Rajapakse of Army ‘B’. Kamal Sameera a boxer with a load of experience having participated in the recently concluded World Boxing meet in China was too good for Police ‘A’s U.B. Ratnayake of Police in the Featherweight Under 57 event. This win and the performance in earlier boxing meets gave Sameera the E.L.Gray memorial cup for the most outstanding boxer of the year.

Manju Wanniarachchi another experienced boxer of the champion team who also participated at the World boxing meet in China outscored his opponent B.G. Lakshman Kumara of Army ‘B’ in the Bantamweigt Under 54.

The remaining two bouts the Flyweight Under 51 Under 51 and Light Flyweight Under 48 were won by Army ‘A’ boxers H.P.L. Jayantha Kumara and T.M.C. Tennekoon. But the wins could not prevent Slimline becoming the champs. Jayantha Kumara was awarded the best boxers prize while Army was adjudged the most successful club of the year having won the Clifford Cup, Women’s champion and having the most number of wins at the Layton Cup meet.

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