Priantha - a legend in the Ring

Priantha Malavi completed 30 years as a Boxing Official recently. He qualified in September 1982, being the youngest to qualify as a Boxing Referee in Sri Lanka. At present he is the most senior active boxing referee/judge in the country. The youngest to qualify as a boxing judge in Sri Lanka is the former ABA President, Dian

Gomes who also qualified in 1982. The first boxing meet that Priantha Malavi officiated was at the Royal College inter-house meet in 1983. Since then he has officiated many meets around the country always maintaining a high standard of skill and fair play. Unfortunately there were no FAAB exams held in Sri Lanka during the 1980's and 1990's for him to qualify as a FAAB or AIBA official.

He was the secretary of the Royal College boxing team in 1972 and was the the technical advisor to the tam from 1974 to 1994. During this period Royal College won the Stubbs Shield on 9 occasions and also the L.V.Jayaweera Cup (1), the T.B.Jayah Cup (6), Francis Jayawardene Cup (1) and the Phelps Trophy (4). Many Royal College boxers won Best Boxer and Best Loser trophies during this period. He is a founder life time member of the Royal Boxing Club and has been its Treasurer for the past 20 years. He is also a member and auditor of the Boxing Referees & Judges Association of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Amateur Boxing Coaches Association.

He came under the tutelage of the late Danton Obeyesekere and Ponnambalam Rajendram at Royal College and was helped on the road to refereeing and judging by the late Thomas de Silva and the late Dharmasiri Weerakoon and also K.V. Dharmadasa, Per Sonnerby, Mr and Mrs Embuldeniya and especially Donald Munasinghe.

He functioned as a ring-side announcer at the Sri Lanka vs Phillipines and Sri Lanka vs Vietnam duel meets and the 2006 South Asian Games. He also functioned as a T.V. commentator at the Sri Lanka v Tanzania, Sri Lanka vs India duel meets and the Boxing Nationals. In addition to Boxing he has participated in cricket, hockey, basketball and athletics.