BASL Chief Selector on lessons from Asian U22 and Youth Boxing Championships 'We now know where we stand in Asia'

Chairman of the Boxing Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) Selection Committee, F. H. Abdulla Ibunu, has offered a candid assessment of Sri Lanka's performance at the ASBC Asian Youth and Under-22 Boxing Championships held in Colombo, acknowledging the country's position in the Asian boxing hierarchy while outlining future strategies.

- By ALLAAM OUSMAN

"We initially selected 43 boxers and pruned the list down to 33 after several sparring (selection) sessions to finalise the team," said Ibunu. "As hosts, we had the rare privilege of including a maximum number of entries, and we wanted to take this opportunity to assess our boxers' current standard against the best in Asia," explaining the rationale behind fielding an expanded squad. Although the medal tally fell short of golden expectations, Sri Lanka managed to reach five finals - an encouraging sign according to Ibunu.

"We took a chance to see what standard we can achieve. Most of our bouts were against Kazakhstan and although we lost, we put up a fight," he noted.