For the first time in history, three Sri Lankan boxing officials have been elected to serve on the various commissions of the Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC). Hemantha Weerasinghe (Referee and Judge), Syamalee Prabuddhika Lokuyaddehige (Women), and Dr. Tharanga Aruggoda (Medical) were elected to serve on the respective ASBC Commissions from 2023 to 2027 at the Board meeting held in Bangkok, Thailand.
Weerasinghe, a Vice President of the Boxing Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), has been a member of the ASBC R&J (Referee & Judge) Commission since 2015. He was twice appointed as secretary of the ASBC R&J Commission from 2015-2018 and 2020-2023. A distinguished product of St Sylvester’s College, Kandy, Weerasinghe was awarded the boxing Lion in 1986 after representing Sri Lanka as a schoolboy.
Weerasinghe has many accomplishments as a boxer, referee, and administrator at the national and international levels. A two-time national flyweight boxing champion, he represented Sri Lanka at the Asian Boxing Championships and the 2nd South Asian Federation Games in addition to winning the selection tournament for the Commonwealth Games in 1984. An accredited national referee since 2003, he qualified as an AIBA 1-Star referee in 2010 and officiated at the Asian Junior Boxing Championships in 2007 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. An Executive Committee member of BASL since 2004, Hemantha served in various capacities as Assistant Secretary, Secretary, and Vice President. He qualified as an International Technical Official (ITO) of AIBA in 2014 and officiated at more than a dozen international competitions.
Syamalee Prabuddhika is a 2-Star IBA referee who has been the chairperson of the BASL Women’s Commission since 2021. Winner of the Layton Cup and bronze medallist at the National Championship, she has a Black Belt and 1st Dan in karate. A national referee and judge since 2014, she has officiated at the Les Ceintures Boxing Cup in Paris 2022, Eindhoven Boxing Cup in Eindhoven twice, and the 23rd President’s Boxing Cup Indonesia 2019 in addition to tournaments in Hungary and China. A former lecturer at the Ocean University of Sri Lanka and a Human Resource Executive at MAS Holdings, Unichela, Prabuddhika is CEO/Director of Hiyata Services (Pvt) Ltd.
Dr. Aruggoda has served as chairman of the BASL Medical Commission since 2018 and also Secretary of the Navy Boxing Disciplinary Committee. An accomplished doctor of medicine, he got his MBBS from Sri Jayewardenapura University in 2013 and MA in Counseling from the Post Graduate Institute of Kelaniya University in 2014. A graduate in Human Resource Management at IPM in 2016, he completed the Ringside Doctor and Team Cut Technician course of IBA in Budapest, Hungry. He officiated as a ringside doctor at the AIBA Youth Men and Women World Championship in Kielce, Poland in April 2021. Presently he serves as a Medical Officer at Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama.