Sri Lanka hopes to win at least one gold medal in boxing | Daily News

Sri Lanka hopes to win at least one gold medal in boxing

The newly elected President of the Boxing Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) Dian Gomes expressing his views during the media briefing. Former coach of National Boxing Team and Vice President Wasantha Kumara (left) and Secretary Lt. Col. (Rtd) Hemantha Weerasinghe (right) also in the picture. Picture by Saman Sri Wedage
The newly elected President of the Boxing Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) Dian Gomes expressing his views during the media briefing. Former coach of National Boxing Team and Vice President Wasantha Kumara (left) and Secretary Lt. Col. (Rtd) Hemantha Weera

The newly elected President of the Boxing Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) Dian Gomes believes the country will be able to get at least one gold medal within the next four years in the 2022 Commonwealth Games or 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Dian Gomes was elected uncontested as President of BASL for the third occasion for another four-year term at the recently held AGM. Previously he held this position from 2004-2009 and 2017-2020.

The BASL focuses to the long term plans to get gold medals for the country and President of BASL believes the country has a realistic chance in the 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Games which will be held in Birmingham, United Kingdom from July 27 until August 7 in 2022. Another important event for the Sri Lankans is the South Asian Games in 2022 which is scheduled to be held in Lahore, Pakistan.

We have more chances to get gold medals in three sports events such as athletics, boxing and weight lifting. We need more attention from the officials to uplift these sports. Now we have young talented Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa, who is a sportsman himself having played several sports, is young enough to dream of Sri Lankas long-term sports philosophy and the growth of sports. So I am sure with him taking a very serious role we will be able to get the medals and take boxing forward, said Gomes at a media briefing held on Saturday

The BASL hopes to conduct the National Championship in December this year following the guidelines of Health Ministry which was postponed due to Covid 19 outbreak. They expects to form a national pool and begin training in January 2021 in preparation for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2022 South Asian Games while also hoping to get a Cuban Coach again with the support of the Cuban Embassy.

Our greatest achievement was winning three Bronze medals after 68 years at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games through Anusha Kodituwakku (light flyweight under 51kgs), Thiwanka Ranasinghe (light flyweight under 49kgs) and Ishan Bandara (flyweight under 52kgs). We have proved our pugilists can obtain medals in international events but our target is to win gold medal, Gomes further said.

Former Coach Wasantha Kumara and (SSP) Saman Gunaratne were elected as Vice Presidents of the association while Lt. Col. (Rtd) Hemantha Weerasinghe was elected as Secretary. Abdulla Ibunu, Aubrey Peiris and Deepal Herath were elected as Assistant Secretary, Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer respectively.