Boxing Medal predictions bow out in quarters of UAE meet

Sri Lanka’s most talented medal contender, Abdur Rahman Zaidh, faced a tough exit at the ASBC Asian Junior Boys and Girls and Schoolboys and Schoolgirls Boxing Championships in the UAE.

ompeting in the under 35kg weight category, Zaidh, a product of Zahira College, Colombo, was beaten in the quarter-finals by Kazakhstan’s Abylay Dossymbekov, with the referee stopping the contest in the first round.

In addition to Zaidh, six other Sri Lankan boxers were abolished in the quarter-final stage. They faced difficult opponents from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.

Schoolgirls Shihasna Kawindi Hetthiya of Kalupahana National School and Weerasinghe Arachchilage Somaweera of Deerananda MV lost on points to Kazakhstan’s Takhmina Almasbek (37kg) and Milana Inshina (40kg) respectively. Meanwhile, Kushani Malsha Harappant of Dharmaloka College, Pelmadulla was outclassed by Ukraine’s Veronika Holub.

In the Schoolboys category, Don Anuhas Denuwan Madubashana and Dinayadura Sadusha Sathmi de Silva of Vidyarathana University College, Horana, and RMNC Rathnayaka of Deerananda MV were unable to advance past their opponents. They faced defeats against Uzbekistan’s Javlonbek Makhammadisaov (40kg), Kyrgyzstan’s Nursultan Zhumaliev (46kg), and Mulsim Pansher (54kg) respectively.

Earlier in the preliminary round, Sathmi de Silva and Nethmi Avishka Gimhani of Sri Pragnanarathna Central College, Geli Oya, advanced after receiving walkovers from Saudi Arabia’s Tamim AlHazmi (46kg) and Bhutan’s Sangay Peldon (48kg) respectively.

Nevertheless, the other Sri Lankan participants, Binul Dulnada Dewasiri of Vidyarathana University College, Horana, Lokunarangodage Nehan Kularatne of Sunandaponanda MV, Moratuwa, and Ranasinghe Arachchige Ranasinghe of S. Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia, were eliminated in the preliminary round. Kularatne (54kg) and Ranasinghe (57kg) lost on points to Iran’s Seyedali Malakoutidehkord and Tajikistan’s Abubakr Azizov, while Dewasiri (46kg) was stopped by Uzbekistan’s Khikmatilla Sobirov in the third round.