By M. Shamil Amit

Army Boxing Club and MAS Unichela Boxing Club pugilists dominated proceedings in the Men’s and Women’s catagories  respectively of the Layton Cup Boxing Championship which concluded at Royal MAS Boxing Arena recently.

In fact Army BC won the Layton Cup after a lapse of ten years with the last being in the year 2008 as they grabbed the honours by winning seven gold medals out of the ten weight categories that were conducted. Last year’s national champions MAS Slimline BC was able to bag only three gold medals.  In the women’s category MAS Unichela BC grabbed the honours by winning eight gold medals and Police BC one gold medal.

Apart from coming out on top the two teams also had the honour of producing the best boxers with last year’s national light flyweight champion M.P.G. Sajeewa Nuwan  adjudged  the best boxer in the men’s category and Keshani Hansaka the bronze medalist at the Indonesian President’s Cup taking the women’s award.

The best losers of the Layton Cup were N. Jinadasa in the men’s category and M.P. Sanjeewani Cooray in the women’s. Coray national champion in the 54kgs event  lost her bout by a split decision to H.N.S. Thalgaspitiya of MAS Unichela.
The championship served as the final trial to select the boxing pool that would contest at the forthcoming South Asian Games scheduled to be held in Kathmandu, Nepal in December.

Dian Gomes President of the Amateur Boxing Association of Sri Lanka graced the occasion as the chief guest at the awards ceremony.