Gunasinghe laments drop in boxing standards

Upananda JAYASUNDERA - Kandy Sports Spl. Corr.

Boxers of yesteryear are somewhat perturbed about the falling standard of the sport. One of these boxers, former Feather-weight champion and Commonwealth Games boxer G.A.S. Gunasinghe is somewhat sad to note the declining standards in boxing.

He said that the chief reason to for this is due to the fact that qualified and experienced boxers are no longer coaching at school level and those in charge of schoolboys these days are generally masters-in-charge who are not qualified to coach. Something must be done soon to remedy the lapse because Gunasinghe who had wide experience in the sport, having boxed at international level is trying his best to keep the sport alive in giving back to the sport what he has gained from it.

He first coached Peradeniya Madhya Maha Vidyalaya and Dharmaraja, Kandy. He was a schoolboy boxer at St. Sylvester's, Kandy where he won the coveted 'Extra Heavy weight 'A' Class under 130 lbs. at the prestigious Stubs Shield Meet in 1961 under the guidance of the well-known Derek Raymond and then climbed the ladder of success when he joined the Air Force and continued his winning ways, getting to the top in the Clifford Cup, Laytan Cup and the National Championship under the guidance of T.M. Khalid and D.G. Labrooy.

Gunasinghe boxed for Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) at Commonwealth Games held in Kingston, Jamaica in 1966.

Boxing in those days was not just slugging away, but real scientific boxing and the quality of Gunasinghe's boxing could be judged by the fact that he was also picked as the 'Most Scientific Boxer' at the 3 meets mentioned above. In 1973 he was picked as the Best Sportsman of the year at the Royal Ceylon Air Force (Now Sri Lanka Air Force).

During his boxing career he boxed alongside champions of the calibre of Sumith Liyanage, Malcolm Bulner (Both Olympic boxers) P.G. Neil, L.V. Douglas, Bertie Ekanayaka, P. Edmon, Vernon Enas, Parakrama Jayasundera to name a few. After he 'hung' up his gloves, he took to the next best thing-coaching. He has produced many boxing champions at schoollevel and one particular boxer Anuruddha Ratnayake went on to win a Silver Medal at the SAF Games boxing. At present Gunasinghe is a referee & a judge in boxing.