The first Sri Lankan to enter an Olympic ring and win a bout was Leslie Donovan Perera Handunge, better known as Leslie Handunge.
Boxing was one of the main sports where Sri Lankans participated in at the Olympics during the first couple of decades after Independence.
Of the boxers who represented the country at the Olympics during that period, Leslie Handunge is often revered to for not only being the first Sri Lankan pugilist to record a victory at an Olympiad, but also for his technique.
He became the best director of Physical Education at the Peradeniya University and when he was in charge of all grounds they were in perfect condition, even international cricket matches were played before Sri Lanka gained Test status.
Leslie Handunge represented Ceylon at the 1948 Olympics at age 27 when he took part in the London Games.
He is often referred to as the first Sri Lankan to record a victory at an Olympics, although all his colleagues too had recorded victories. Incidentally, according to the 1948 Olympic boxing records, all three Sri Lankan boxers at the London Games, Leslie Handunge, Eddie Gray and Alex Obeysekera had beaten their first round opponents. He joined Trinity College as a schoolboy from Matale and was guided on the correct path by his coaches. He excelled at Trinity in four major events, cricket, boxing, rugby and athletics.
He won his weight class at the Stubbs Shield, but could not win the Trinity Lion as he could not win the Best Boxer’s title that year (1940). A long distance runner, Leslie won Colours for athletics at Trinity and after leaving school, he played inter-club hockey and football for Kandy Rovers and was rated as one of the finest centre forwards in hockey. In football he was as left-inside and played rugby for Kandy Sports Club and the Up-Country.
He was also a rugby and football referee as well as a cricket umpire and was instrumental in developing rugby at the University of Peradeniya where he trained the undergrads from the University of Peradeniya with some of them being SU Mendis, Sarath Illangathilake, MTM Zarook, Dr. Harry Rasiah and Farouk Omar.
Leslie was a diploma holder in Physical Education of Lougborough College UK and became the first Sri Lankan to obtain his Diploma and Masters Degree in Physical Education from Springfield, USA.
In boxing, he won his first National title in 1944 in the Flyweight Class and also bagged the best boxer’s award at the Intermediate, Albert Perera Meet and National Championships.
He represented the University of Ceylon at boxing and rugby, and was the British and Irish Universities’ Bantam weight Champion while at Loughborough College.
He retired as undefeated flyweight boxing champion of Sri Lanka in 1952 and was a firm believer in sport being made available to everyone as against the concentration of competitive sports for a gifted few.
His ring philosophy was to out-wit and out-think the opponent and not merely to out-punch him.
In keeping with the thinking of boxing greats like Sugar Ray Robinson, Mohamed Ali, whom he met, Jack Johnson and Jim Corbett, Leslie was determined to see that the youth engaged in sport.