With some outstanding punches being landed on Kenya’s Nicholas Okoth, Sri Lankan boxer Manju Wanniarachchi easily outplayed his opponent to reach the semi-finals of the 56 Kg weight category of the Boxing competitions of nineteenth Commonwealth Games here in New Delhi today. Wanniarachchi won 10-1 at the Tal Kotora Indoor Stadium in front of a huge support extended by the hundreds of Indians and few Sri Lankans.
Wanniarachchi had a stiff opposition from the 2008 Olympian Nicholas but with some hard punches and the Kenyan rarely had a chance to do the same. Lankan was in front from the beginning but at the later part of the second round, a punch landed on his face, causing a cut above his left eye. It was a critical moment that team manager Dian Gomesz said after the match that if the referee saw blood coming out, the match would have been stopped, offering the victory for the Kenyan.
“I have no words to say. I am so happy. I would bring a medal this time and I am confident that it would be a gold or silver” Wanniarachchi said right after his bout. “I have been looking for a gold medal in the Olympics, Asian Games and the Commonwealth games for a quite some time and this time I feel that I am really on the track” added Wanniarachchi.
Ending a sixty year lapse without a medal in the history of Commonwealth Games for Sri Lanka, Manju Wanniarachchi is hoping to put an end to the jinx. Sri Lanka’s last medal in Boxing at in the Commonwealth games history was in 1950 when Albert Perera won a Silver at the Empire and Commonwealth Games in Auckland, Newzeland. In that year, Sri Lanka won another silver when K Edwin won a silver in the fly weight category and there were two bronze medals too. The only gold medal for Sri Lanka in the history of games was in 1938 at the Sydney Empire and Commonwealth Games where Ansdale William Henricus won a gold medal in the Feather weight category.
Manju Wanniarachchi, the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games quarter finalist, will face Botswana’s Tirafalo Seoko in today’s semi final at the same venue. Wanniarachchi beat Seoko 6-2 in the Commonwealth Games qualifiers in March this year and is confident over taking on his known opponent.