L. V. Jayaweera boxing introduced in '72

S. M. Jiffrey ABDEEN-Kandy Sports corr.

L. V. Jayaweera Memorial boxing championship was introduced in 1972 to spread the game of boxing to a very wide areas upto that Stubbs Shield boxing championship was the only competition for schools and the very best participated and others did not have a chance of competing," said the Senior Vice President of Schools Boxing Association of Sri Lanka S. K. Karuanratne.

He made these observations at a media conference held in this connection by the sponsors of this boxing championship Linea Clothing a subsidiary of MAS Holdings at the Board Investments Complex at Pallekelle on Tuesday.

Karunaratne said that the L. V. Jayaweera boxing competition will be held at the Kengalla Navodaya Vidyalaya in Kengalla in Digana from June 26th to 29th and over 300 boxers will compete for the 16 weight classes ranging from the age group of 12 to 19. This competition is open to only novices who had not participated in any meet except inter house competition in the schools.

In 1972 Donald Munasinghe who was at that time in the staff of Mahiyangana Maha Vidyalaya and N. Thambimuttu of St. Michael College brought this idea of having a meet for novices, so that talented boxers could climb their way up.

The first meet was held at Mahiyangana MV in 1972 and this was an instant success and the first winners of this championship was the little known Mahiyangana MV who had seven winners and it was a golden debut in boxing.

He said that around 60 schools are expected to participate in this championship which will include the Central Province, western Province, Southern Province, Sabaragamuwa Province, Wayamba Province and the North Central Province. The boxers will be provided with accommodation and other facilities including gloves and the head gear. They will have to come only with the gum guard and blue or rid boxing banian depending on the corner they will have to commence their fight. The sponsors have come in a big way to promote boxing in the area by helping them to conduct this meet in an area little known for boxing.

The sponsors Linea Clothing of MAS Intimates have upgraded the facilities at Navodaya Vidyalaya at Kengalle and the school, will be also benefitted from this as over Rs 350,000 will be spent on this upgrading including the water supply and the power supply.

He said that due to the large number of entries which is received each year, this year the number of entries from each school is restricted to 10 and from this only 7 could participate in the meet. In conclusion he said that this meet has been conducted for 39 years and the defending champions are Peradeniya Central College.

Also present at this media briefing were Pemil Attanayake - Manager Human Resources - MAS Intimates and Linea Clothing, Hemantha Weerasinghe - Administration Manager MAS Intimates, Chandana Galappatthi General Manager MAS Intimates, Lakshman Tillakaratne, Secretary SBASL, and Upali Jayasekera, Principal Kengalle Navodaya Vidyalaya.