The sporting extravaganza of the world, 31st Summer Olympic Games will be held from the 05th to the 21st of August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with top athletes from around the globe competing for hounors. There will be intense competition in 42 Olympic sports disciplines which will be contested in 306 events over the course of 19 days of competition and will yield 131 medals for female athletes, 161 for men and 09 mixed medals.
This will be the seventeenth time Sri Lanka will be appearing in this gala event having previously participated as Ceylon from 1948 to 1972. Duncan White, MBE was the first Sri Lankan to a podium finish at the Olympics when he won the Silver medal in the 400M hurdles at the 1948 London Olympics. Susanthika Jayasinghe became the first female medalist when she won the Silver medal in the 200M at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
This year Sri Lanka will field a contingent of 09 athletes who will represent the Island nation at the 31st Olympiad. ThePapare.com managed to have a word with Mr. Maxwell De Silva, Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) regarding the preparation of the Sri Lankan contingent.
‘These athletes are Sri Lanka’s ambassadors at the biggest stage in world sport; we expect them to hold the Olympic values of Friendship, Respect and Excellence in the highest regard on and off the field. It’s important that these athletes are great examples to the young aspiring athletes back home and serve the motherland with honour to the best of their abilities. The NOC will be initiating a program to educate the young school children of the Olympic Values as they are a universal set of principles that can be applied to education , our lives and sport itself.’
Matthew Abeysinghe achieved a remarkable feat becoming the first Sri Lankan swimmer to achieve ‘Olympic B Standards’ to qualify for the Olympics. All previous swimmers who have participated in the games have done so as wildcard or universality entries. Having moved to the Island from USA in 2010, Matthew is also the only male swimmer to hold all national free style records. It’s a phenomenal achievement by this young swimmer to have achieved qualification standards for his debut Olympics raising the bar for all swimmers in the country.
Speaking on Abeysinghe’s success The Secretary General stated that ‘It’s a ground breaking achievement for swimming in Sri Lanka, Matthew was offered a scholarship in Thailand by FINA the International governing body of swimming after qualifying for world championships but he declined the scholarship to train in Thailand. FINA then offered the same scholarship for Matthew to train under his father /coach Manoj Abeysinghe at KWA in Colombo which he accepted. He is an example of how we can create home grown champions provided that they are given proper guidance and training. Credit should go to Manoj for his relentless effort in training this young swimmer and we are glad to have been part of his success story.’
Kimiko Raheem who amassed 5 gold medals at the South Asian Games (SAG) will join Matthew through a wild card entry to splash the Olympic waters.
Airman Chaminda Dharmawardena will also get into the history books as the first Sri Lankan Judoka to take part in the Olympic Games. Dharmawardena, who won the Silver medal at the SAG Men’s 73 Kg event, is currently on a month long scholarship in Slovenia training under Marijan Fabjan, a coach who also mentored Olympic champion female judoka Urska Zolnir who won Gold at London 2012. The NOC was instrumental in securing this rare opportunity for this emerging judoka and the Secretary General Mr. De Silva stated that Dharmawardena has been making really good progress in Slovenia and he was thrilled to have secured a wild card entry for the first time in the history for this young airman. He also added that ‘Fabjan is a world class coach and when it comes to wrestling Slovenia produces some of the best wrestlers in the world. Chaminda is privileged that he
gets to train with an Olympic champion and mentored by a coach which produces champions , Fabjan is happy of the progress Chaminda has made during this short period‘.
Sri Lanka’s undisputed King on the Badminton court Niluka Karunaratne will be representing the country in his second successive Olympics. Flag bearer at the previous edition, Karunaratne is a hard working athlete who currently holds the world rank of #107 in the competitive world of shuttle.
Mangala Samarakoon will also be competing in his second successive Olympics having debuted in the London 2012 games. He will compete in the 10m air rifle and 50m rifle prone events.
Holder of the national record for his throw of 83.04M at the SAG trials, Airman Sumedha Ranasinghe managed to overcome the Olympic qualification hurdle of 83.00M to secure a spot to Rio making 2016 games his debut Olympic experience. Ranasinghe has been impressive in the run up to the games so far and if present will put on an interesting show at the upcoming nationals.
Veteran marathon runner Indrajith Cooray will be Sri Lanka’s most experienced contender for the games having travelled to Athens 2004 and London 2012. Rio 2016 will be his third charge for a podium finish. Cooray bettered the Olympic qualification time of 2:17:00 at last year’s London marathon clocking 2:13:47 and has been training at a high altitude training center in Kenya under the purview of the NOC.
Geethani Rajasekara who will be the first Sri Lankan to compete in the women’s Marathon secured her place to Rio when she was placed 5th at last year’s Asian marathon achieving 2:40:07 bettering her own Sri Lankan record.
South Asian Games Gold medalist and Silver medalist at the Commonwealth games in Glasgow 2014, weight lifter Sudesh Peiris was granted the opportunity through a wild card entry solicited by the International Weight Lifting Federation (IWF) on the request of the NOC and the good relations the Secretary General Mr. De Silva has with the federation.
ThePapare.com congratulates all the athletes who have secured a place to the biggest sporting spectacle of the world and wish them all the very best to make our motherland proud. Watch this space as we bring you exclusive personal previews of the athletes who will represent Sri Lanka at Rio 2016.
