Mr Udeni Kiridena was selected by the “International Boxing Association” as the sole Referee/Judge from the South Asian region to officiate at the Rio Olympic Games, bringing honour and credit to Sri Lanka. His talent as a boxing referee was duly recognized by the Ministry of Sports of Sri Lanka and was adjudged as the “Most Outstanding Referee / Umpire / Judge / Technical Official” for the year 2016 at the “Presidential Sports Awards” ceremony held at the BMICH on Friday 19th May,2017.
• Mr. Udeni qualified to officiate at the Olympic Games after a lap of 20 years and became the 03rd R&J to participate at the Olympic in the Sri Lanka Boxing history. The previous participations at the Olympic games as referee and judge were in 1996 at Atlanta, USA and 1960 at Rome Olympics by Mr.Dharmasiri Weerakoon and Mr Danton Obeysekara respectively.
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This former Trinitrin (Boxing Lion), was the Sri Lanka Schools’ (Stubbs Shield) ‘Best Boxer’ in 1982. A Junior National Champion, who qualified as a National Boxing Referee/Judge in 1983 went on to qualify as Continental Referee in 2002 as the batch top. He passed as an International Boxing Judge in 2006 and qualified as a Referee in 2008. Thereafter he successfully completed the AIBA 3 Star examination in 2010 and the WSB/APB exam held in Kazakhstan in 2012.
Udeni remains the first and only Sri Lankan Referee/Judge as at date, to officiate at AIBA Pro-Boxing bouts. The boxers compete for eight or more rounds at this level. At ‘World Series Boxing’ meets with five rounds of boxing, He has officiated in “Italy Vs Azerbaijan”, “England Vs Mexico”, “Russia Vs Algeria”, “England Vs Russia”, “China Vs Algeria”, “Poland Vs Russia”, “Uzbekistan Vs Azerbaijan”, “Puerto Rico Vs Kazakhstan” and more, in the recent past.
Mr Udeni Kiridena was the elected President of the Amateur Boxing Association of Sri Lanka during the period 2009/2010. He was the Chairman of the National Boxing Selection Committee and continues to serve in the Committee.
He has officiated in many international tournaments around the world such as Rio Olympic Games, World Boxing Championships, Youth Olympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Championships, Olympic Continental Qualifiers, South Asian Games, World Series of Boxing meets, AIBA Pro boxing meets are a few to name.
By profession, Mr Udeni Kiridena is a qualified Chartered Insurer and an Associate Member of the Chartered Insurance Institute of the UK. A Senior Associate of the Australian & New Zealand Institute of Insurance & Finance and also an Associate Member of the Indian Insurance Institute. Udeni Kiridena is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Sri Lanka Insurance Institute.