Sylvestrian Malcolm Bulner was a top class boxer-By Hafiz Marikar

St._Sylvester's_College_

St. Sylvester’s College, Kandy has produced some of the top class boxers . This school is situated in the heart of the seat of ancient Sinhala Kings and remains as the one and only school in the country if not in the World to have produced a sportsman who was selected to represent two different countries at two different Olympic games. That is none other than boxer Malcolm Bulner.

One of the top class boxers to come out of Kandy was Malcolm Bulner; He was a unique boxer that Kandy and the country produced with an unmatchable record.From the time he sported his gloves at St. Sylvester’s College and up to the time he migrated to Australia he was never beaten by any boxer in our country,No boxer has this record.

What is more significant is, as a schoolboy he passed many a milestone a boxer could achieve during his career. By the time he left school in the 1960’s, he had represented the country at the Commonwealth Games in Perth, in 1962 Olympics in Tokyo, 1964 and also had beaten all the champions in his weight class in Sri Lanka and won many best boxer awards.

From the school ring to the national ring he graduated at the tender age of 18 and as a schoolboy he beat some of the veterans like P.C. Mahagedera, Hector Ekanayake, L.V. Douglas, P.G. Neil and also Sumith Liyanage. His first fight with Sumith Liyanage who was the national champion and Olympic boxer at that time was rated as one of the most memorable bouts in boxing history. Malcolm’s brothers Michael, Noel and Christopher too were good fighters in the lower weight class and became national champions.

All this was due to the good guiding of coach Derrick Raymond who was the St…Sylvester’s coach and was attached to the Peradeniya University as a marshal. To his credit he produced some top class boxers who as schoolboys went on to win national championships and even represented the country in the Commonwealth and Olympic games.

Malcolm migrated to Australia in 1966 and continued his boxing career and won the Australian national championship. He was selected to represent Australia in1968 Mexico Olympics but it was very unfortunate that he lost that opportunity.There was a rule in Australia since he had represented another country he had to be a resident in Australia for three years to qualify. He was short of four months.

But Australian government was prepared to bear all his expenses to the Olympics and they were prepared to permit him to represent Sri Lanka because Australians thought that he was a potential gold medalist. But it was so sad Sri Lankan authorities refused permission and the rest is history.

What an unfortunate end to a brilliant amateur boxing career. Although Australia was trying to convince him to continue till the next Olympics in 1972, he decided otherwise and turned it down.He had refereed many professional bouts including heavyweight bout of former heavyweight champion Fran Bruno and Manny Pacquiao.