Sports
Dhammika Ratnaweera
Long jump champion Sarangi Silva in action.
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Sri Lankan long jump champion Sarangi Silva is training to prepare for the 2022 Commonwealth Games that is scheduled to be held from July 28 to August 8 in Birmingham, England. She is having a busy training schedule with her coach Y.K. Kularatne.
Even yesterday, despite the Government imposing an island-wide curfew, Sarangi had a training session with her coach in Torrington. Sarangi, who resides in Panadura, is currently staying at the Torrington Sports Ministry Hotel and does her regular training with her coach.
Coach Kularatne, who is also the Senior National Athletic coach, said they have no excuse to discontinue her training. Sarangi trains every day other than Sundays either at Torrington or the Sugathadasa Stadium during mornings.
“Every athlete hopes to win an international medal for their country. I too am determined to win medals for my country. The Commonwealth Games is a very competitive event. But I hope to do my best and hope that my training will pay off as my coach is giving his best support for me to go forward,” said Sarangi, the 26-year-old athlete from the Sri Lanka Army.
“I have been selected for both Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. At the moment, my best achievement (distance of 6.65m) is a medal-winning mark at Asian Games. Japanese and Chinese jumpers are challenging me at Asian Games, but I don’t know their recent achievements as fewer International meets to find their performance due to the recent pandemic period,” she added.
“Last year, I had the opportunity to get training overseas and also got the opportunity to take part in a few International meets which gave me a big boost. The Asian Games is postponed to next year and that is good for me and I can fully focus on the Commonwealth Games. During the two-month period earlier, we had to take part in two major Games, Commonwealth and Asian. We have focused more on Asian Games, but not one meet on next July end,” Sarangi said.
“Nigeria and England athletes also did good achievements in my same event and they will meet at the Commonwealth Games. All of them are big challenges while we have to adjust Birmingham’s atmosphere to complete these Games. All depends on that day but no excuse for any athlete at the International level,” she added.
Wednesday, May 11, 2022 – 01:00
