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Sri Lanka’s overall team captain Indika Dissanayake during his silver medal winning effort in 2018 Gold Coast
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Overall captain of the Sri Lanka contingent at the XXII Commonwealth Games Indika Dissanayake made a clarion call to all athletes to raise the bar and fight for medals to bring glory to the nation which is undergoing economic hardships.
“The National Olympic Committee and Sports Ministry have supported us wholeheartedly despite economic hardships to assemble the biggest ever contingent from Sri Lanka in Birmingham. We owe it to the country to bring happiness with good performances. We should make every effort to fight for a medal or at least get a good ranking,” said Dissanayake who won a silver medal in the 69kg weight class at 2018 Gold Coast.
Making his fourth appearance at the Commonwealth Games having also competed in 2010 Delhi and 2014 Glasgow, 32-year-old Dissanayake is determined to lead from the front and go for gold in the 73kg weight class. “I want to see the weightlifting team winning at least two or three medals. We can also hope for medal winning performances from boxing, women’s T20 cricket, judo and wrestling,” said Dissanayake who is proud to be the overall captain of 110-member Sri Lanka contingent but is more interested in seeing athletes bringing glory to Sri Lanka by winning medals.
Women’s T20 cricket captains (from left) Haylay Matthews (Barbados), Chamari Atapattu (Sri Lanka), Bismah Maroof (Pakistan) and Harmanpreet Kaur (India) enjoying a light moment at the Library Shop, Birmingham. Photo courtesy Subir Halder
Dissanayake and women’s T20 cricket captain Chamari Atapattu will be the flag-bearers for Sri Lanka at tonight’s opening ceremony scheduled to commence at 7.15 pm (11.45pm Sri Lanka time) at the refurbished Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr which has a capacity of 30,000.
Winner of five medals, including four silver, at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships, Dissanayake, Chinthana Vidanage, gold medallist in 2006 Melbourne and silver medallist in 2010 Delhi, and Chathuranga Lakmal who won a silver in the men’s 56kg weight at 2018 Gold Coast are returning to the Game. The other being boxer Ishan Bandara who won a silver medal at 2018 Gold Coast. National record holder in the Snatch (134kg), Clean and Jerk (164kg) for a combined total of 298kg at the 2017 World Weightlifting Championship, Indika Chathuranga Dissanayake will be cynosure of all eyes when the weightlifting competition gets underway on Saturday.
Sri Lanka Weightlifting Federation president Asoka Ranjith Bandara was quietly confident of winning at least four medals. Sri Lanka is banking on weightlifters lifting the spirits of a nation saddled by economic problems.
Speaking to a cross section of athletes who arrived on Monday in Birmingham, they displayed commitment and dedication to the cause and were not here on a joy ride. Heavyweight Ushan Charuka Widanapathirana who is competing in the 109kg weight class is making his second appearance at the Games having been placed eighth at 2018 Gold Coast. “We have been training hard under our coaches RB Wickramasinghe (head coach), Rukshan Gunathilaka and Navindra Dayan in Mahaiyawa, Kandy,” said Ushan, a South Asian Games (SAG) silver medallist.
The lightest competitor Srimali Samarakoon will be competing in the 49kg weight class for the first time but is confident of lifting above her personal best of 155kg. Gold medallist in the 45kg at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Uzbekistan in December and a gold medallist at the Singapore Open, the soft-spoken Srimali is a pocket-sized dynamo. Thimali Nethmini Haputhenna, a silver medallist at the Commonwealth Championship, will be competing in the 87kg and has a personal best of 200kg.
Thursday, July 28, 2022 – 01:00
