Wettasinghe and Bandara make international debut in Teheran

BOXING: Two pugilists make their international debut for their country after the selectors of the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) of Sri Lanka picked them ahead of two experienced boxers for the Teheran Invitation Championships to be staged in Amol from March 3 to 6. Pugilists from 20 countries are scheduled to fight it out for honours in Teheran.

The debutants are H. A. S. S. Wettasinghe from the Air Force who will fight in the Light Weight class and A. G. N. Bandara of the Army who will box in the Light Welter Weight class. Both won these titles at the last National Championships beating the defending champions. The former beat M. A. N. Bandara in the semi-finals of the Light Weight and then knocked out A. S. Rajapakse in the second-round of the final.

The other two boxers picked for Teheran are; Harsha Kumara of Slimline in the Fly Weight class and K. A. N. N. Alexander of Unichella in the Light Fly Weight class.

The former won not only the Fly Weight title at the Nationals, but went on to win the Best Boxer's Award. In 2005 won a Bronze medal at the Commonwealth Championships.

The latter represented Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England in 2002, Asian Championships, King's Cup in Thailand and President's cup in Indonesia up to 2005.

The national selectors headed by K. V. Dharmadasa also included DIG Thangavelu, Donald Munasinghe, Herbart Embuldeniya and Udeni Kiridena, who thought it fit to "keep out" the experienced duo of Manjula Wanniarachchi and Kamal Sameera who lost in the first-rounds of the world Championships in China in 2005 and even failed at the Asian Games in Qatar last year (2006).

Wanniarachchi, the Bantam Weight champion made his debut for the country at the South Asian Games in Nepal in 1999 and in his seven-year international career, won a silver medal at the King's Cup in Thailand in 2005, silver medal at the South Asian Games at Islamabad in 2004, as well as bronze medals at the Goa International Championships and Greenhill International Championships in Pakistan also in 2004.

Kamal Sameera made his debut for the country at the 2004 South Asian Games in Islamabad, Pakistan and won bronze medals at the President's Cup in Indonesia in 2004 and at the Commonwealth Championships in Scotland in 2005.

L. G.