Five para-athletes have qualified to participate in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, which will be held in September.
Anil Prasanna Jayalath, Amara Indumathi, Ajith Hettiarachchi, Gamini Ketawala and Buddhika Indrapala are the five para-athletes who qualified after their exceptional performances in the recently concluded IPC Athletics Asia-Oceania Championships in Dubai, UAE.
Anil Prasanna Jayalath won the men’s 200m T42 in 25.11secs, lowering his own previous Asian record mark by an impressive 0.76 seconds. The Paralympic Games qualifying time is 28.50 seconds.
Jayalath, Indumathi bag 4 Golds as Sri Lanka gets 15 medals
He also qualified for the Long Jump (T42/44) with a distance of 5.37 meters to win the Silver Medal and went beyond 4.90 meters needed for qualification for Paralympic Games.
Ajith Hettiarachchi, in the men’s 400m (T44) won the Silver Medal with a time of 56.46 seconds, where the qualifying time was 57.00secs. Ajith also qualified for men’s 200m (T 44), finishing in 25.06 secs. The qualification time is 25.08secs.
Gamini Ketawala won the Silver Medal in the Javelin Throw (F46) with a throw of 44.71m where he obtained the qualification distance of 44.00m.
Buddhika Indrapala too qualified for Paralympics in the T42 200m and T42/44 Long Jump. His 200m time was 27.51secs while his Long Jump was 5.08m.
The only woman representing Sri Lanka in the Paralympic Games is Amara Indumathi. She qualified for the women’s Long Jump T20/47. She had a jump of 4.70m where the qualifying distance needed was also 4.70m.
