‘Boxing Karu’ was the cynosure of all eyes in 1960s

Herath Karunaratne

Herath Kapuralage Karunaratne, also known as ‘Boxing Karu’ represented Sri Lanka at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.

Karu was born on October 21, 1941 in Karawanella and was the second in a family of 11 children.

He had his early education at Karawanella Junior School and secondary education at the Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya, Katana.

At school, he excelled as a football player and after leaving school he joined the Army as an ordinary soldier in the Infantry in 1962.

Karu learned the basics while at Army and soon he mastered the game in just a matter of one year and went on to beat the renowned champion boxer M. Y. Joharan at the National Boxing Championships in 1962.

Thereafter, he quite easily won the Army Inter-Unit Championship, Defence Services Championship, Layton Cup, Clifford Cup and the National Championships in successive years and he also won the Best Boxer award on several occasions.

Karu, who started from paperweight class, proceeded to pin weight and light flyweight classes in a short period of time.

In 1964, at the trials for selection of participants for the Tokyo Olympics, Karu won both his bouts quite easily. However, his hopes of competing at the Olympics were shattered following the sudden death of his father.

The year 1965 witnessed another march forward in Karu’s boxing achievements where he participated in the Indo-Ceylon Boxing Meet.

At this Meet, he defeated the famous Indian champion boxer Lathan Singh with a brilliant performance.

He also led the Ceylon Boxing Team and in the same year he participated at the second Asian Boxing Championships held in Seoul, South Korea and won a Bronze Medal.

He also had the opportunity of participating in the fifth Asian Games held in Thailand in 1966.

In 1967, the third Asian Boxing Championship Meet was held in Sri Lanka and while several Sri Lankan boxers were repeatedly losing their bouts, Kuru came out with an outstanding performance and recorded a resounding victory over his Japanese opponent.

He was awarded the Horlicks Cup at this meet which was sponsored by the Ceylon Daily News. (C.D)