Anuruddha fights his way to Beijing

Thirty two year old Anuruddha Ratnayake can be seen as one of the most gifted sportsmen to have emerged in recent times. His rise in the boxing arena has not been a bed of roses. He began his academic career in a village school near his home namely Kumbalwathumulla MV in Pilimatalawa where he studied up to the maximum which is grade five before moving over to Peradeniya Central in 1986.

But never in his life would he have had a doubt that one day his lifestyle would have never thought that this would be his ticket to the Olympics.

The dream has come true for Anuruddha who recently got himself qualified to don the country’s colours at the forthcoming Olympics due to be held in August 2008 in Beijing, China.

Anuruddha is the only boxer to represent the country at the Olympics in Boxing after H.K. Karunaratne did so at the Mexico Olympics in 1968.It was long four decade wait for this popular sport in Sri Lanka.

Speaking to The Sunday Times a few days after his arrival from Chicago where he earned his berth to have a go at the Beijing Olympics next year Anuruddha said “It was not easy, the two week gruelling meet of the World Boxing Championship in Chicago saw 557 pugilists from 101 countries flex their muscles to earn a slot at the Olympics. For that you had to come out as the top eight in your category and that’s what I had to do.”

He has been a champion from the time he began to don the gloves at the tender age of 11. But he says “I have never gone to witness a boxing meet and nobody persuaded or forced me to enter the ring, it was through my own conscience that I got involved in this sport. In my first ever meet I won a gold medal in the 50-60lb category as juniors had no categories”.

He went missing from the ring for a period of three years from 1987 to 1990. He came back in 1991 and took part in Stubbs Shield meet where he ended up as the runner up in 105lb category. Then the next year he went a step further winning the gold medal and was adjudged the best boxer at the Stubbs Shield meet.

From there on he went on to bag the best boxers’ award at all major boxing meets. In the year 1993 and 1994 he was adjudged the best boxer at the Stubbs Shield and Layton Cup boxing meets and again the best boxer at Layton Cup meet one year later. He also bagged the best boxers’ award at national championship in 1995 and went on to become the best boxer at the Clifford Cup meet in 1996. All these were achieved while representing Peradeniya BC.

In between he had some international exposure too when he took the silver medal at SAF games held in Kathmandu, Nepal whilst winning a gold medal at the Adajania International Boxing championship held in New Delhi, India.

The turning point of his boxing career came when he joined Slimline BC Pannala at the request of the present ABA President Dian Gomes which he joined in 2002 with five other boxers. This gave Anuruddha and the other pugilists the opening they needed. He said “we never looked back from the day we joined Slimline BC we were offered employment along because of our involvement in boxing.

“We were able to break the dominance of Army in boxing when we clinched the national title in the year 2002 which was also the first for nearly five decades among the other clubs that were taking part.

This was also the period that many of the pugilists including me were given overseas training and also the chance to participate in meets abroad.

“Our guys gained immense experience and I am proud to say that in most of the international meets I have been able to reach the quarter final and it has been a long standing hoodoo of mine that I have not been able to go beyond that, but I don’t get discouraged.

“One of earlier meets which I would like to recollect was when I was the sole member from Sri Lanka contingent left to represent the country at the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester as all the others had lost, here too I could not go beyond the quarter final stage.

“We were fortunate to have got the services of a Cuban coach in Frometa Matos who fine tuned most of us. He did yeoman service to boxing in Sri Lanka during his three year tenure. All this was due to the effort put in by Mr. Gomes to whom we are all grateful”. He said once Matos period lapsed another Cuban coach Trotman Dailey took over duties “he made a big impact. It was unfortunate that he had to leave the shores after just two months due to personnel reasons. He had a load of experience as this was his seventh assignment as a coach abroad.

He was a man of discipline and he made a big change to us, we underwent tough training under him and if he was able to fulfil his two year contract then Sri Lanka would have gone miles ahead in the boxing arena”.

The Sri Lanka – Tanzania dual boxing meet that was held recently in Sri Lanka gave him the real opportunity. It was also his first international meet after his absence from the ring after he was charged positive for the useage of performance enhancing substances. Anuruddha showed that he has not lost his touch when he knocked out his Tanzanian opponent in just one minute of the first round.

When asked why he could not break the quarter final hoodoo at Chicago he said that it was the time factor. The break that he got in between the two fights was insufficient.

“When I got qualified to the quarter finals I only had a gap of 20 hours for the bout the next day. I did not get a chance to settle down and I could not make full use of my favourite right hook and punch. Nevertheless it was my best ever fight at an international meet. I did my best to break the barrier but the previous nights cold also affected me.

“Anyway now I have the belief and confidence in myself that I could get a medal at the forthcoming Olympics. He also paid his gratitude to his fellow workers as when he came back to Sri Lanka team he came to know that all the employers of MAS Holdings was on a one minute silence, praying for his success to win the bout.