Army’s Ishan Bandara and Vidyarathena SC’s Keshani Hansika emerged as Sri Lanka’s leading medal prospects for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games with impressive performances at the final selection meet organized by the Boxing Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) at Royal MAS Arena.
Reigning national champion Bandara suffered a dip in form after his bronze medal winning effort at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games but the 30-year-old has dominated the men’s fly weight (under 51kg) category in all three trial meets including the Layton Cup.
Having beaten young upstart Lasindu Eranda of Vidyarathena SC in the first trial in December, Bandara continued peaking in form to knock out Navy’s Indika Bandara on the second day of the final trial to impress selectors who are waxing lyrical about his technique and power punching ability. Ironically, Navy’s Bandara had outpointed promising youngster Umayanga Mihiran representing Vidyarathena SC on the opening day. Eranda who had moved up to the Bantam weight (under 54kg) lost to Army’s Rukmal Prasanna after bleeding profusely from a head injury in the second round.
Mihiran and Eranda are two promising young talents who will not be on the flight to Birmingham, England for the Commonwealth Games to be held from July 28 to August 8.
Southpaw Prasanna, who won the coveted Sir Henry William Manning Cup awarded to the most scientific boxer at the 2020 Boxing Nationals, underlined his class by outpointing Air Force’s PGE Madushan in the final. An outstanding product of Gamini Central, Ingiriya, the 21-year-old has the potential to go places in the international arena provided he stays injury free.
Feather weight (under 57kg) champion NBAJ Vimukthi Kumara of Army, Navy’s DLPR Kumara and Air Force’s IPDC Udayakumara are likely to make the cut for the Commonwealth Games for which BASL hopes to send five men and three women pugilists.
“We rank the boxers according to their performance and skill levels. Our boxers won’t stand a chance in the heavy weight categories against boxers from England or even India at the Commonwealth Games,” according to a national selector.
Army’s V Niklas (under 71kg), Kingswood BC’s Niraj Wijewardhana (under 75kg) and Police’s Gayan Rathnasiri (Under 80kg) also won their weight classes.
Sri Lanka’s leading women’s trio of Hansika, Nadeeka Ranasinghe (under 48kg) and Air Force’s Sajeewani Cooray (under 57kg) also prevailed over their rivals.