Boxers progress at Games

Sports

TEAM Papua New Guinea’s Neville Warupi, Arthur Lavalou and Jamie Chang have reached the Commonwealth Games boxing quarterfinals which are scheduled for today (local time).
Heavyweight (over 86kg-92kg) Lavalou and bantamweight (over 51kg-54kg) Chang had byes which pushed them straight into the quarterfinals.
Welterweight (over 63.5kg-67kg) Warupi booked his spot after beating Solomon Islander Pemberton Lele on points (4-1) on Tuesday.
Warupi said there was no shortage of motivation in the win.
“With John Ume, Charles Keama and Allan Oaike all bowing out earlier, this is what pushed me to win,” he said.
“It gave me more strength and determination.”
Warupi will face Scotland’s Tyler Jolly tomorrow at 2.15pm (11.15pm, PNG time), Lavalou will meet England’s Lewis Williams at 3pm (12am, Friday) and Chang will battle Wales’ Owain Harris-Allan at 6.45pm (3.45am, Friday).
In other results on day five, at Alexander Stadium, Team Papua New Guinea’s Leroy Kamau ran a personal best of 10.68 seconds to finishing sixth in the heats of the men’s 100m.
Pacific sprint champion Toea Wisil ran a season’s best of 11.79s to finish fifth in the heats of the women’s 100m.
In the men’s discus throw, De’Bono Paraka reached 48.19m, but it was not enough to qualify for the finals.
Ephraim Lerkin ran a season’s best of 52.43s to finish seventh in the heats of the men’s 400m hurdles. Unfortunately, Daniel Baul was not able to complete his race in the heats of the men’s 400m hurdles after he pulled up injured.
The pair will not proceed to the next stage.
In the women’s heptathlon, Edna Boafob set personal bests in the high jump (1.51m) and shot put (10.14m).