Boxers of yesteryear are somewhat perturbed about the falling standard of the Sport. One of these Boxers former feather-weight champion and Commonwealth Games boxer, G.A.S. Gunasinghe is somewhat sad to note the declining standard in boxing.
He said that the chief reason for this is due to the fact that qualified and experienced boxers are no longer coaching at School level and those in charge of schoolboys these days are generally masters-in-charge who are not qualified to coach the particular Sport.
Gunasinghe said that something should be done soon to remedy the lapse as he had wide experience in the sport, having boxed at International level and he is trying his best to keep the sport alive in giving back to the sport what he has gained from it.
He first coached Peradeniya Madya Maha Vidyalaya and Dharmaraja College, Kandy. He was a schoolboy boxer at St.Sylvesters’ College,Kandy where he won the coveted ‘Extra Heavy Weight’ A Class under 130 lbs. at the prestigious Stubbs Shield Meet in 1961 under the guidance of the well known Derek Raymond and then climbed the ladder of success when he joined the Air Force and continued his winning ways getting to the top in the Clifford Cup, Layton Cup and the National Championship under the guidance of T.M.Khalid and D.G. Labrooy. Gunasinghe boxed for Sri Lanka(then Ceylon) at Commonwealth Games held in Kingston, Jamaica in 1966.
Those days Boxing was not just slugging away, but real scientific boxing and the qual ity of Gunasinghe’s boxing could be judged by the fact that he was picked as the ‘Most Scientific Boxer’ at the three meets mentioned above. In 1973 he was picked as the ‘Best Sportsman’ of the year at the Royal Ceylon Air Force (now Sri Lanka Air Force).
During his boxing career he boxed alongside Champions of the calibre of Sumith Liyanage, Malcolm Bulner, (both Olympic Boxers)P.G, Neil, L.E. Douglas, Bertie Ekanayake, P. Edmon, Vernon Enas, Parakrama Jayasundera to name a few.
After he hung- up his ‘gloves’ he started coaching boxing and he has produced many Boxing Champions at school-level and one particular boxer Anuruddha Ratnayake, who won a Silver Medal for Boxing in the SAF games. At present Gunasinghe is a referee and a Judge in Boxing.
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