Dian Gomes on a mission to scout the next ‘young blood’
Sri Lanka boxing, which has won fame and glory even at Commonwealth Games level, is in safe hands in the future, says Dian Gomes, the President of the Sri Lanka Amateur Boxing Association (ABA).
“We have a policy, a strategy and a plan to take the sport to the next level. We have identified a few young boxers, who can conquer the world by 2022,” explained Gomes.
After Gomes was appointed the President of ABA, Sri Lanka has been sending boxers for various international meets during the past few years to get foreign exposure, which will enable them to compete at the South Asian, Commonwealth, Asian games and even at the Olympics level.
“When you look at this year’s programme, we have been able to send boxers for the Asian Junior Championships, Asian Youth Championships, and could also send some players for the tournament in Mongolia. This will be the first time, that Sri Lankan schoolboys as juniors have taken part in international tournaments,” added Gomes.
It’s a notable fact that every sport in Sri Lanka lacks a national policy or a national pool except for cricket. Boxing too suffers the similar fate as far as a national policy is concerned. According to Gomes, boxing needs the backing from the government.
“I think we have a very good strategic plan for boxing for the next three years targeting the 2022 Commonwealth Games. That is the main reason why we are training juniors and schoolboys. We need the government support to find a Cuban coach, as we used to have earlier,” said Gomes.
Dian Gomes always was a cornerman in boxing - Pic by Amila Gamage
“Unfortunately, there’s zero funding from the government, which is disappointing. We do not have funds to even conduct our local meets properly,” he revealed.
Sri Lanka is gearing up for the South Asian Games (SAG) to be held during early December, this year. They expects around six medals from boxing. It will be an uphill task to win a gold medal against the comprehensive Indian challenge.
“Winning gold medals is as important as building teams for the future. Currently, the toughest competition is coming from India, who are ranked fairly high in world boxing today,” explained Gomes, before leaving for the Eindhoven Cup to be worked off from October 17 to 20 in the Netherlands.
After Gomes’ appointment, the ABA had conducted coaching camps on regular basis. In addition they have been busy training and qualifying local referees and coaches to international level. Currently, Sri Lanka has around six ‘3 Star’ international coaches and six ‘3 Star’ referees and judges with a few international technical officials as well.
“As I stated earlier government support is essential for certain sports bodies, including boxing. Currently we get zero support from them. Boxing is self-funded by individual donations and private sponsorships. Amidst the greatest of difficulties we are moving forward to win medals for Sri Lanka,” Gomes said.
The ABA administration has become more proficient after Gomes’ reappointment. He went on to say that the administrative structure has made a huge stride, while overall being contended with the outcomes during the past six to eight years, at the top stage.
“We have been doing extremely well, although we have not been able to win medals. We have been giving good fights, it is a good morale booster for juniors. By 2022, I can clearly say that we will have a young new blood fighting at international level,” Gomes said.