By Amindha de Alwis

Trinity College, Kandy is set to lodge a complaint to the International Boxing Association (AIBA) Headquarters in Switzerland on selection issues stemming from the recently concluded trial-meet for the ASBC Asian Junior and Youth Men and Women Boxing Championships 2021 to be held in August. 

A last-minute change of eligibility requirements left 14 school boxers who had travelled to the Royal MAS Arena in Colombo from across the island unable to participate even after having completed the official weigh-in at the venue. 

The Boxing Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) had, in a letter dated July 4, 2021, invited gold or silver medalists at past school and BASL organised tournaments to send in applications for the selection trial-meet. 

A day prior to the trial-meet on July 8, a message was sent on the BASL  WhatsApp group amending this criteria. 

The new standard communicated was that only gold and silver medal winners from three specific meets, the Stubbs Shield, Junior Nationals and Schoolboy Championships would be eligible. 

Schools who had prepared boxers to satisfy the correct weight class protested the sudden change and after a series of phone calls the official who posted the WhatsApp message rescinded their statement. 

However, on the day of the selection trial-meet, with the boxers having retired to their lodging in anticipation of the draw being released, the tournament officials announced that the criteria described in the official letter dated July 4, 2021 was in error and the criteria mentioned in the WhatsApp message made mandate. 

The situation naturally caused considerable distress to at least 14 young boxers who were thereby blocked from competing. 

The trial-meet invitation letter for the previous Asian Youth Boxing Championship in 2019 was found to have employed the same eligibility criteria as mentioned in the letter dated July 4 of this year which begs the question why the tournament organisers chose to make a change in such haphazard last-minute manner. 

Officials from Trinity College, Kandy when inquiring about the handling of the situation, were met with a blunt apology by officials who said that the criteria in the official letter was a mistake not usually done and that the new rules were made to raise the bar of the competition.