Sri Lanka’s girls bagged a silver and bronze medal at the first ever ASBC Asian U22 Boxing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan yesterday.
Uthpala Sewwandi Bothalage featured in the gold medal clash in the light fly (50kg) weight class against Uzbekistan’s Sabina Bobokulova.
Bothalage entered the final after receiving a walkover from Hikaru Shinohara in the semifinals and found the 18-year-old Uzbek talent Bobokulova too strong in the title clash.
Southpaw Bobokulova who defeated Mongolia’s IBA Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships bronze medallist Altanbek Khulan by a unanimous decision in the semifinals, stunned the Sri Lankan with a powerful right almost at the bell in the opening round.
Bothalage made a valiant attempt to step up the tempo against the confident Uzbek who landed another stunning blow in the second round for the referee to stop the contest.
Sri Lanka’s bronze medal came in the women’s fly (52kg) weight class where Ishara Nishadi Malshani Lokuge lost in the semi-finals to the eventual silver medallist Rinka Kinoshita of Japan.
An experienced campaigner who has been boxing since the age of 13, found the Japanese southpaw too hot to handle.
Kinoshita, who lost a unanimous points decision against Feruza Kazakova in the final, stopped the Sri Lankan in the second round.
Sri Lanka were represented by a six-member team accompanied by three officials in this inaugural Under-22 tournament which saw 109 boxers from 12 countries taking part.
Kavindu Sanjay (48kg) and Lasindu Eranda (51kg) gave a good account of themselves but were outpointed in the preliminary round by opponents from Pakistan and Iraq respectively.