58th World Military Boxing Championship Sri Lanka win two Bronze Medals

BY Susil Premalal

Sri Lanka won two Bronze Medals at the 58th World Military Boxing Championships in Russia with Army’s Sajeewa Nuwan Kumara fighting his way to victory in the light flyweight (49kg) class while Air Force’s Gayani Kaluarachchilage created history becoming the first woman pugilist to bag a medal in this competition.
Two-time national champion Nuwan lived up to his billing as Sri Lanka’s best prospect for a medal to battle his way to glory in two contrasting bouts. He fought a fight of his life to beat a tough southpaw from Mozambique Yassine Issufo in the quarter-finals before losing narrowly to Brazil’s Leanderso Siqueira in the semi-finals.
Sri Lanka were also assured of another Bronze Medal when Kaluarachchilage went down fighting in the semi-finals of the middleweight (75kg) category to Viktoriya Kebikava of Belarus.

2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist Army’s Ishan Bandara advanced to the quarter-finals in the flyweight (52kg) category defeating Pakistan’s Muhammad Dawood with the bout being stopped in the third round because of an injury.

The rest of the 15-member strong Sri Lanka team comprising Army, Navy and Air Force pugilists, were eliminated in the preliminaries with leading woman pugilist Sajeewani Cooray failing to go the distance against France’s Lorye Ruyer in the lightweight 

(57kg) contest.