Five Sri Lankan boxers for New Delhi

Anushka WITHANAGE

The 5th Commonwealth Boxing Championships will be held at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi from March 10 to 18, 2010.

The Amateur Boxing Association of Sri Lanka, conducted a selection meet from February 13 to 20, 2010 at Royal College and selected five boxers to represent Sri Lanka at this Tournament.

The boxers are T.M Thenakoon Light Fly - 49 Kgs (Sri Lanka Army ), P.D Suresh - Fly - 52 Kgs (Sri Lanka Air Force) , M.D.K Wanniarachchi - Bantam 56 Kgs (Slimline SC). RMAB Gunathilaka Light - 60 Kgs (Slimline SC). R.T Jayathilaka Middle - 75 Kgs (Slimline SC).

Ruwan Keragala will serve as the overall Manager of the team while T.B Harsha Kumara - Coach and Julio Conception Santana Padron - Cuban Coach will serve as the two coaches of the team.

ABA has nominated Dr. E.W. Jayasinghe as the Team Doctor and Group Capt. K.V.N.J. Dharmadasa will be officiating in the Tournament.

Although this tournament was scheduled to be held in 2009, it was postponed to March 2010 as the venue of Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi was not ready in 2009.

The championship will see at most 180 boxers from 18 countries. All major Commonwealth boxing nations like England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Kenya, Samoa, Singapore, Canada and India will be participating in this championship. Australia has turned down the invitation citing previous commitments.

At the 4th Commonwealth Boxing Championships held in Liverpool, England, K.A.N.C Alexender (48Kgs), T.B Harsha Kumara (51 Kgs), M.D.K. Wanniarachchi ( 54 Kgs), A.K.G.K Sameera (57 Kgs) came up to the Quarter finals. T.M Thennakoon and P.D. Suresh competed at the recently held 11th South Asian Games held in Dhaka, Bangladesh and lost in the quarter finals to Indian and Pakistan boxers who won the Gold and Silver Medals respectively.