Eight boxers leave for Sweden today

by Shamseer Jaleel

Sri Lanka Boxing will be sponsoring the top 8 school boys who did well in the recently concluded Stubb Shield Boxing, and will leave the island today for Sweden to participate for the very first time at the ‘King of the Ring’ International Boxing Tournament. This will take place from 21 to 25 November in Boras, Sweden. The outfit will have just one day to get adjusted to this big event after a long flight to Europe.

Along with Sri Lanka there will be teams featured by hosts Sweden, England, Norway, Finland, Scotland, Portugal, Ireland, Gambia, Uganda, Senegal, Canada, India, Jordan, and Lebanon. 

Trinity College, Kandy’s Attaab Manzil, one of the most scientific boxers at the Stubbs Shield meet, will be the only representative in the Juniors segment. Attaab comes from a sporty family where his father represented the national outfit in Table Tennis. Attaab also led the College Under 16 rugby outfit plus did table tennis as his pet game coming from his family blood.

The other selected players on tour are Kavisha Manathunga (St. Sylvester’s College, Kandy 52 kg), G.D.I.S. Hansaja (Vidyartha 49 kg) and Shanujan (Hartley College, Jaffna 81 kg). Meanwhile from the elite category, including two from Dheerananda College, Pilimatalawa – S.M.K.S. Bandara (52 kg) and Stubbs Shield Best Boxer Chethiya Ekanayake (60 kg).

The other two are three times Stubbs Shield winner Nisal Rangana Bandara (49 kg) of Peradeniya MMV and Vimuk Hettiarachchi (56 kg) of Royal College, Colombo. The highlight is that the selected players of 8 with 6 of them coming from Central Province is remarkable for the growth of the sports in the Hills.

The officials selected for the tour are AIBA 2-star coach Abdulla Ibunu of Royal, AIBA 1-star coach K.K. Sunil of Dheerananda MMV, who is also SASL general secretary, AIBA 1-star coach U.D.T.T. Abeywardena of St. Sylvester’s and Lahiru Senarathna, Trinity’s head coach will be the School National coach on tour. Lahiru did boxing for Trinity from 2007 to 2014 has taken Trinity Boxing with many trophies in the last couple of years where the sport was neglected badly for some time.