Chronicling the history of a sport which has a rich tradition at Trinity has been an ‘On, off’ sport. Boxing was introduced at Trinity in 1907 for the small boys and became a serious school sport in 1913 for the boys who were physically fit. Mr. Mulgrue of the staff was the first coach and he was assisted by R. V. Routledge, Sgt. Maj. Jobson and Rignell of the Army regiment stationed in Kandy. An inter-house meet was held in the very first year and Trinity won the Stubbs Shield in the inaugural meet in 1914.
Trinity’s ascendency was maintained in 1915, ’17, ’18, ’21, ’22, ’23, ’26, ’49, ’51, and in 1983 by being the winners of the coveted Stubbs Shield. Only Royal and St. Sylvester’s have won the Stubbs Shield on more occasions. The first death-knell to Trinity boxing was in 1962, but, like the phoenix, it sprang back to life in 1978 with the trainers being Bobby Jayaweera, S. B. Kiridena, Leslie Handunge and Sarath Jayasinghe and culminated with winning the Stubbs in 1983.
Sadly the second death-knell was dealt to Trinity boxing in 1984 and was again revived in 2005. Now that a professional boxing Ring has been donated by Dian Gomes, Trinity boxing may once again be on the fast track. Since 2005, Trinity College boxers have managed to show there colours in the ring. They have fared exceptionally well in all meets in which they participated over the years.
In Trinity history, the ‘Lions’ for boxing have been awarded to:
M. P. Kellora, F. R. Sirimanne, George Wells, Sydney Ratwatte, L. de Sliva, Henry Young, M. S. Daniel, E. C. Godleib, D. L. Y. Paktsun, L. K. L. de Silva, Rajah Sumanasekera, Ikram Odeyar, Udeni Kiridena and Sajith Egodage.
The only Olympian boxer produced by Trinity was Leslie Handunge who represented the country at the London Olympics in 1948 and captained the contingent at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952.
Udeni Kiridena was the only Trinitian to qualify as an A.I.B.A Referee/Judge.
Royal-Trinity Boxing Dual Contest:
Royal beat Trinity by 11 bouts to 2 to win the Donald Obeysekere Shield in the Dual Boxing Meet conducted at the Royal College Boxing Square on 11th December 2010. This event was organized after a lapse of 50 years.
Past Winners of the ‘Royal-Trinity Dual Contest’:
1955 – Royal
1957 – Royal
1958 – Royal
1960 – Trinity
Trinity Boxing Pool 2010:
Nipuna Jayaweera
Rohan Jayarathne
Kanishka Dissanayake
Shaheem Azher
Heshan Wickramathilake
Gunasegaram Ze Lushanth
Yashodha Senarathne
PrathapCostha
Lahiru Senarathne
Sahan Dodanthanne
M.S Fadhal
M.M.S Ziard
T.S Weerasena
W. Dedunupitiya
M.A.M Ashraque
Kavintha Jayaweera
Trinity Boxing Gallery:
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Article Sources – TCK Boxing Fan Page On Facebook, The Lanka Gazette Website
Article By – Yashwanth Dahanayake
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Published 13 years ago
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