Vidyarathne SC pugilist Nadeeka Pushpakumari won a bronze medal at the ASBC Asian Elite Men and Women Boxing Championship in the women’s flyweight (51kg) held in Dubai, UAE. Sri Lanka was represented by four men and three women at this championship.
The Asia Women’s Boxing Championships was inaugurated in 2001 and in 2019 amalgamated with the Asian men’s Championships. So far Sri Lankan women boxers have recorded 7 Bronze medals at these championships. The last bronze medal was won by Shiromalie Weeraratne of Police at the 2012 Asian Championship in Mongolia fighting in the Light welterweight.
Pushpakumari lost in the semifinals to tough two-time world champion Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan who went on to win the championship defeating six-time world champion Mary Kom of India in the final. Pushpakumari won the bronze medal in South Asian Games held in Nepal in 2019 as well.
In the men’s Division at the Flyweight 52 Kg quarter finals South Asian Silver Medalist and gutty KVL Eranda another Vidyarathana SC product had a very close bout with Saken Bibossynov of Kazakhstan who was the bronze medalist of AIBA World Boxing Championships. Kazak boxer won this bout with very little margin and went on to win the bronze medal in this weight category. Gamini Central Ingiria product Rukmal Prasanna of the Army fighting in the Bantamweight 56 Kg in the quarter-finals also had close combat with a young but very experienced Junmilardo Ogayre of the Philippines. Pilipino also won the bronze medal in this weight category. Rasmika Illangaratha a Veyangoda Central product fighting for the Police boxing club had a very tough bout in the Quarter finals with Gulasal Sultonalieva of Uzbekistan who won the silver medal of this weight category.
Dian Gomes the President of the Boxing Association said the fight between Kavinda and Sanjeewa was very impressive as they hardly got an opportunity to train in Pool.
Kazakhstan led the women’s medals tally in the championships by winning eight gold medals while Uzbekistan and India won one gold each. In the men’s division, Uzbekistan grabbed 6 gold medals out of 10 weight categories. Mongolia clutched 3 golds while India won 1 gold medal in this tournament. The tournament saw the participation of 20 strong countries with 187 boxers. The Sri Lanka team is expected to return home tomorrow, according to the official of the Boxing Association.
