Sri Lankan youth boxers draw inspiration from Mary Kom

Text and Pix by Gitika Talukdar

Youth boxer M. Henayala Gedara Madumali E. Priyadarshini is from a small village called Hanguranhetha in the Nuwara Eliya District. The 17-year-old, who is a farmer’s daughter, is representing Sri Lanka at the AIBA Youth Boxing World Championship 2017 in Guwahati, India. 

She is a student of Pallebewala Madyama Mahavidyalaya. Her academic institute is 6 km away from her home and she used to walk through the nearby hilly areas each morning to reach her destination. She was 14 years old and a grade 9 student at Pallebowala Senior Secondary School when she first started boxing under the guidance of her school‘s Physical Education Teacher Jamitha Gayan. It was Gayan who saw the spark in this young talent and started training her. Gayan, himself a well-known boxer in Sri Lanka, is now Priyadarshani’s coach.

“There was no special facility for training in the village. Therefore, Jamitha Sir, who was my first coach, gave me an opportunity in 2012 to train on the school premises. From there, I continued my training in boxing,” said Priyadarshini.

“She is an unbeatable national youth boxer. She was the winner of the inter-school tournament for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. She has also participated in the Youth Commonwealth Games 2017 held in the Bahamas. Despite all sorts of obstacles that come with being from a poor family background, she is the best young boxer in Sri Lanka. She needs financial assistance and proper equipment with proper training so that she can achieve her dream of being a world champion in the near future,” said Gayan.

“I have watched the movie ‘Mary Kom’ twice. I want to become the Mary Kom of Sri Lanka,” said Priyadarshini. 

She said that she got really inspired by the movie, which was based on the struggles and success of five-time World Boxing Champion M.C Mary Kom, who rose from humble beginnings in an interior village in Manipur, India. 

“Despite being a mother of three children, Mary Kom’s punch is still very powerful even today, and there is speed and force in her game. If she can work so hard then why can’t I?” asked Priyadarshani.

“I lost by one point in the quarterfinal of the AIBA Youth Women’s Boxing World Championship in Guwahati but I left that fight proud of myself. I knew at the end of that tournament that I had done the best I possibly could. When you know that, you can’t be mad at yourself. And I think that’s when I really got respect from other athletes and Sri Lanka Youth Boxing because they knew that I was a top contender. I knew right away that my dream wasn’t over and I just had to chase it. I hadn’t even hit my peak yet.” 

Another young talented boxer is 18-year-old Nimesha Fernando, who is also inspired by Mary Kom and wants to gain a top position in the world of boxing. The daughter of a local small-scale businessman from Kandy’s Kengalla Village, she told Daily FT that her initial source of inspiration was her elder sister Nirosha Fernando, who is also a national boxer. She started boxing at the age of 19 but the AIBA Youth Women’s Boxing World Championship 2017 in Guwahati is her first international boxing tournament and she got this opportunity after winning so many national tournaments in Sri Lanka. She trains under the tutelage of R. Mudiyanselage Upali Bandara, the coach of the Sri Lankan youth women’s boxing team.

Aside from boxing, Nimesha is a good singer and a trained Kandyian dancer too, but after watching the biopic of Mary Kom she has decided to concentrate entirely on boxing.

“I want to be a fulltime boxer and I have just started my journey with the AIBA International matches, and I have to go far and achieve a lot. I want to make my country proud,” said Nimesha.