Mehreen exits after her fall in first round

By our correspondent

BIRMINGHAM: Pakistan’s female boxer Mehreen Baloch on Tuesday was put out of the event when she went 0-5 down to Sri Lanka’s Sajeewani Cooray Muthuthanthri in the women’s featherweight round of 16 in connection with the Commonwealth Games here at the NEC boxing gymnasium.

Mehreen, who made the Commonwealth Games debut, did not impress but stayed tall until the end of the bout mostly dominated by the Sri Lankan who sealed a 5-0 victory with scores being 30-26, 30-26, 30-28, 30-25, 30-26.

Despite the loss his coach Arshad Hussain was happy with her performance.

“She played the whole fight and I think it was good for her,” Arshad told The News after the bout. Mehreen was the only female boxer from Pakistan who featured in the event.

Now Ilyas Hussain has left as the only medal hope. The Quetta-born boxer will meet Jude Gallagher of Northern Ireland in the quarter-finals on Wednesday (today). He on Monday defeated Anthony Joseph of Trinidad and Tobago to make it to the quarter-finals of the featherweight category.