Beat Macau’s Kit Mac in women’s flyweight pre-quarter finals:

Boxer Erandi Gimhani enters quarters

Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from South Korea

INCHEON, Sep, 27 - Sri Lanka registered its first boxing bout when Erandi Gimhani de Silva beat Kit I. Mac of Macau to enter the quarter finals of the women’s flyweight (48-51kg) at the 17th Asian Games worked off at Seonhak Gymnasium here today.

Nevertheless, it was a keenly contested tussle for supremacy but the 26-year-old Lankan lass who finished fifth in the same weight category at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow earlier this year, outpointed Macin in their women’s flyweight (48-51kg) pre quarter final of the 45-nation Games.

Competing in the blue corner, De Silva quickly found her rhythm but Mac was equally aggressive in timing her punches, and only a single point margin distanced the two by all three judges from Brazil, Philippines and Finland in the four rounds, except for the two point margins given by Brazilian Jones Kennedy in round three and Filipino Dante de Castro in the fourth round.

“It was great to win. I am happy to advance to the next round. I will make every effort to advance from this stage and show my presence here,” De Silva said after her victorious bout.

De Silva’s opponent in Sunday’s women’s flyweight quarter final will be Mongolia’s Nandintsetseg Myagmardulam who beat Nepal’s Minu Gurung in today’s pre-quarter finals. There will be another Lankan female boxer in action at the Asian Games ring on Sunday as Shiromali Weerarathna is down to take on Qian Li of China in the quarter finals of the women’s middleweight (69-75kg) event.

The third Sri Lankan boxer to be seen in action on Sunday is Mohammed Dilshan who will get into the ring from the blue corner to confront Karrar Kadhim Sham of Iraq in the pre-quarter finals of the men’s light welterweight 64kg category. Following the fortunes of the Lankan boxers were the foster father of Sri Lanka boxing Dian Gomes, who is also a Vice President of the NOC of Sri Lanka and the President of the ABA of Sri Lanka Aubrey Peiris. Dian arrived here on the eve of De Silva’s event.

But Sri Lanka’s Dilanka Suresh Pattiarachchi lost his men’s flyweight 52kg pre-quarter final bout to Japan’s Shota Hayashida on points today. The Japanese outpointed the Lankan in all three rounds.

Sri Lanka’s Chamara Lakshan continued his pathetic performance in Asian Games sailing, finishing last in his respective races – Mistral men’s windsurfer race 9 and 10, worked off at Wangsan Sailing Arena today. He cut a sorry figure in finishing seventh and last in both the events. He continued to occupy the seventh and last slot in the overall standings

after ten races, headed by Hong Kong’s Kwok Fai Cheng. Apart from women’s 400m final and the three boxing bouts, the only other Sri Lankan to be seen in action on Sunday is wrestler Chamara Milinda who will take on Mongolian Batmagnai Batchuluun in men’s freestyle 65 kg pre-quarter final round.

10m shooting gold for North Korea

Meanwhile, Kim Ji-song of North Korea won the gold medal in the men's 10x running target mixed shooting event today. Kim scored 384 points to nip Zhai Yujia by a single point for the North's first gold medal in shooting here. South Korea's Jeong You-jin got the bronze with 381 points.

Today’s morning session determined both the individual and team medal winners in the 10 running target mixed event. Kim Ji-song helped North Korea to the team silver medal. Kim, Pak Myong-won and Jo Yong-chol combined for 1,137 points for second place. China's Zhai, Zhang Jie and Xie Durun scored 1,139 points.

Tran Hoang Vu, Ngo Huu Vuong and Do Duc Hung together shot 1,123 points for Vietnam's bronze medal. North Korea has so far claimed one gold, three silver and one bronze in shooting. China leads the competition with 23 gold, 14 silver and five bronze.

Meanwhile, Kim Min-ji secured another gold medal for the host nation when she won the women's skeet event. The 25-year-old Kim claimed the first podium finish by defeating Zhang Heng of China by one point in the shoot-off at Gyeonggido Shooting Range in the city of Hwaseong, just south of Seoul. Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit from Thailand captured bronze.

Kim's achievement brought the total number of the host nation's gold medals to eight at the ongoing Incheon Asian Games. It is also her second medal of the day, as she, along with Kwak Yu-hyun and Son Hye-kyoung, picked up the silver medal in the team event of the same discipline earlier.

South Korea’s archery gold

South Korean archers won one gold and one silver medal in the team compound archery events at the Asian Games here today. In women's compound, Choi Bo-min, Kim Yun-hee and Seok Ji-hyun outshot Chinese Taipei's Chen Li Ju, Huang I Jou and Wen Ning Meng 229-226. India took the bronze after beating Iran 224-217.

South Korea built an early lead, beating Chinese Taipei 59-56 in the first end. Chinese Taipei took one step forward and two steps back in the following ends when Chen shot a 7 to scupper the 58-57 lead her team had built in the second end. South Korea took advantage of the slip-up and emerged as the eventual winner. “While preparing for this game, we had been uncertain whether we would ever get to see the light of day,” said Choi, the eldest of the three athletes, during an interview after the competition. “We're very happy that (the match) ended with good results.”

Choi paid homage to Shin Hyeon-jong, her former coach who passed away last year from a cerebral hemorrhage during a competition held in Turkey. “We somehow knew that our former coach would be protecting us from heaven. Although he is not here with us, we are sure that he would be proud of our win,” Choi added.

More than a thousand fans filled the seats at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field on Saturday. Some held up cardboard signs with the names of their favorite archers written in colorful neon letters. In men's compound, South Korea was forced to settle for silver after Choi Yong-hee, Min Li-hong and Yang Young-ho lost 227-225 to India's Rajat Chauhan, Sandeep Kumar and Abhishek Verma.

South Korea got off to a bumpy start, losing to India 55-54 and 58-57 in the first two ends. It managed a tie of 58-58 in the third end but Yang's 7 in the final end consolidated India's win.