Anusha finally bids adieu to boxing

Chris Dhambarage

Veteran pugilist Anusha Dilrukshi Kodituwakku was the cynosure of all eyes at the International Boxing Duel between Sri Lanka and India worked off at the Sugathadasa indoor stadium in Colombo last week.   The 33-year-old Human Resources Executive from MAS Slimline Boxing Club in Pannala made an emotional farewell to her illustrious international career by Spearheading Sri Lanka to win the duel contest 4-3 in front of a packed house.

Her initial plans of course were to announce her retirement following the Tunisian International Boxing tournament in which she was able to win another gold medal in the women’s fly weight class event.The former schoolgirl of Hemangalla MV in Giriulla was contemplating of returning back to her home town in Batapothella, Narangoda and spending the weekend with her parents and loved ones.

The duel meet between Sri Lanka and India of course was in the balance when she took wing to Tunisia and soon after her arrival in Colombo she was asked to prepare for another grueling contest. “This was a huge risk for me both physically and mentally because I was feeling a bit tired after having fought some of the top women boxers in the international arena a couple of days ago”

“But I thought this will be a great opportunity for me to bid farewell in front of my home fans who have been with me in both victory and defeat for the past ten years” said an emotional Anusha Kodituwakku soon after she had defeated India’s Pooja Takas in the light fly weight 48 kg bout.She of course had all the reasons to call it a day after her huge success in Tunisia because she was in a high after having defeated some of the World’s top contenders and also having won the final by a knock out in just under 75 seconds of round one.

Even then she will not regret at all risking her reputation and class in this duel contest because the kind of warm reception and response that she received from her fans after her success was quite amazing.  No doubt her memories would have gone back to the year 2003 where she first came into the limelight by winning the gold medal in the National Championships as a promising boxer at this same venue. And since then Anusha Kodituwakku has come a long way through sheer hard work and total commitment to emerge the country’s best ever women’s boxer of all time.

She retained the national light fly weight title for six successive years, won the Clifford Cup from 2006 to 2009 and again in 2012 and also won the Layton Cup gold medal from 2006 to 2009. She of course experienced mixed fortunes in the international scene where she was able to win four gold medals and six bronze medals which certainly summarized the success story of this champion boxer. 

But above all she was able to leave a lasting impression in this sport where she made a fantastic effort to bring international fame and glory to her country by reaching a career best seventh place in the World Rankings in 2010.“The performance in Tunisia is undoubtedly one of my biggest achievements because there I fought with some of the Word’s best and to beat an Olympic boxer from Finland in the final was something special”.

“I would like to pay tribute to all my coaches and mentors specially Dian Gomes from MAS Slimline for guiding me step by step to reach this standard throughout my career”.“My next goal is to become a boxing coach and I would like to start the coaching career by helping some of the schools in my home town before extending my services to my colleagues at MAS Slimline BC” added Kodituwakku.  
       
She was of course selected by Slimline for her ability on the rugby field where she represented the country at the Hong Kong International sevens, in a side tournament in 2003 and 2004. However she decided to concentrate more on boxing from 2003 and the results have been really outstanding from there onwards.