Sri Lanka’s Lahiru Chandrabandara won his opening bout in the men’s 70kg division at the Asian Games on Monday, beating Yemen’s Mustafa Saeed on a 4-1 split decision to advance to the round of 16, Hiru News reported.
It was Sri Lanka’s only victory of the day. Hiru reports the country did not win in any other event held on 21 September.
The scorecard
The margin was narrower than a 4-1 line suggests. World Boxing’s report of the session — the sport’s international federation, which runs the Games competition — records that four judges scored the bout 29-28 for the Sri Lankan, while the fifth returned 29-28 for Saeed. Every judge separated the two by a single round.
The federation gives the boxer’s full name as Pradana Mudiyanselage Lahiru Lakmal Chandrabandara, and places the bout at Nishio Gymnasium, in the opening evening session of the boxing programme at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Games. Nine boxers advanced in the 70kg division on the first day, across five preliminary bouts in the morning and four in the evening.
One point of wording: Hiru describes the result as a “four to one round score.” It was a 4-1 decision on judges’ cards, not rounds won.
Context
Boxing is one of the 25 sports Sri Lanka is contesting at these Games, from a 156-athlete contingent that travelled to Japan on 13 September. It is also one of only seven sports in which Sri Lanka has ever won an Asian Games medal — athletics accounts for 31 of the country’s 51 career medals, with boxing among the remainder.
The contingent’s clearest medal chance comes on Tuesday, when the women’s cricket team meets India in the gold medal match.
Not reported
Neither source gives the date or opponent for Chandrabandara’s round-of-16 bout, his age, club or record, or how many Sri Lankan boxers are in the squad. Hiru does not say which other Sri Lankan athletes competed and lost on Monday, or in what events.
