Manjula re-emerges as boxing national champion after the ban

Former national boxing champion Manjula Wanniarachchi who was subjected to a two-year ban for using performance enhancing drugs, re-emerged as national champion of Bantam Weight 56-kilo category at the 86th National Boxing Championship held on Tuesday.

Representing Slimline Sports Club, Wanniarachchi, whose ban ended on 13 October, defeated last year’s champion R.T. Weerakkody of the Sri Lanka Army by 21 to 14 at the finals to secure the championship and qualify for the final trials of the SAF Games to be held in March 2013 in New Delhi.

The 33-year old boxer won the gold medal in the 56kg Bantamweight division at the 2010 Commonwealth defeating Sean McGoldrick of Wales in the final. He was later stripped of his medal after being proved positive for nandrolone, a banned performance enhancing drug.

Wanniarachchi, a past student of Vidyartha College, won the silver at his first Commonwealth Games, silver at the Thailand Kings Boxing Tournament, and bronze at the SAAF games in Pakistan.