Shashika Ekanayake of Sri Lanka produced another heartening performance when he grabbed the gold medal in the 50kg youth division at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship held at Penang, Malaysia yesterday.
Ekanayake the 16 year old schoolboy prodigy from Maliyadewa College Kurunegala lifted 114kg under the “clean and jerk” method while also lifting 83kg under the “snatch” method for a total of 197kg that paved the way for the gold medal.
Ekanayake also created history earlier this year when he won the silver medal at the World Youth Weightlifting championship held at Uzbekistan which was the best performance by a junior for this year.
Despite his silver medal performance earlier this year Ekanayake was ignored by all authorities and at one time he was contemplating in giving up the sport. Although, Ekanayake was the best performer among the juniors weightlifters in Sri Lanka, even the National Olympic Committee did not consider him for any benefits.
Instead, they started paying a financial grant of $1000 to Muditha Jayasekara who is a pole vaulter based in Australia whose performance has never been recognized.
After continuously being ignored Ekanayake finally received honour and a cash prize of Rs. 1 million from the Sports Ministry for his medal last month.
