Sports

Sports

Two medals for Sri Lankan boxers after four decades
Two boxers from Sri Lanka Kanal Sameera and Harsha Kumara brought honour to their motherland by winning two bronze medals at the Commonwealth Boxing Championship which ended at Glasgow, Scotland yesterday.
The two were among the seven member boxing team that left the island last week where over 200 boxers from 30 countries participated in the championship.

With Sri Lanka boxing going from strength to strength since of late the winning of the two medals is coming after a period of 40 years. The last medal that Sri Lanka won in an international boxing meet was in 1948 when Barney Henricus won a medal at the Empire Games (which is now known as the Commonwealth Games) held in Melbourne, Australia.

The two boxers won their quarterfinals defeating experience boxers with Harsha Kumara beating Dev Volavrth (11-7) of Mauritius in the Lightweight under 48kg category and Kamal Sameera overcoming K.Ikgopolang (12-10) of Botswana in the Bantamweight under 57kg category. But they were not successful in the semi finals with Harsha Kumara losing to Indian champion M.Balbir while Kamal Sameera lost to the ultimate winner Steven Smith of England.

The team is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on Monday morning where a red carpet welcome is being arranged by the Amateur Boxing Association.

Top