Sri Lanka likely to get at least three medals at the Paralympics Games which will be held from August 28 to September 8 in Paris, France. This time our eight contingent (six athletes, one swimmer and one tennis player) got qualification for Paralympics and we have high potentials from three athletes Samitha Dulan (F 44 Javelin), Palitha Bandara (F-42 shot Put) and Nuwan India (T- 44 100m) said National Paralympic Committee Presidential Colonel Deepal Herath.
In 2020 Tokyo Paralympics Sri Lanka won two medals Dinesh Priyantha Herath from F – 46 Javelin Throw Gold medal with a new record of 67.79m and he was heading for a medal once again but he has been forced to end his athletic career, succeeding a reclassification process carried out by the World Para Athletics (WPA) during last World Para Athletic Championship and he had to be satisfied with bronze at 2016 Rio Paralympics followed by gold at 2020. Last time nine para athletes took part at the Tokyo Paralympics.
But Samitha Dulan the soldier who also claimed the bronze medal in the men’s javelin F 64 category at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, with a distance of 65.61 metres once again strong contingent for the medal and he is expected to improve his bronze medal this time.
Samitha Dulan said I have enhanced my distance 69.46 m which was my personal best and world record of F-44 at the last World Para Athletic Championship and that gave me big boost to take part this Paralympic. In the absence of Dinesh Priyantha Herath Samitha Dulan is the most experienced Sri Lanka para athlete.
In the meantime Palitha Bandara who won the Converse throw bronze medal at last Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this time will compete shot put F -42 and expected to get medal in this event. Bandara also having shot put silver at 2018 Asian Para Games aims to do his best.
Nuwan Indika is another athlete who is expected to win a medal at the Paralympics this time. He will be contributing in the F44 category 100 m events.
Indika has bagged a gold medal in the 100m event at the Asian Para Games held in 2022 in China. He returned a time of 11.63 seconds to win the gold.
Athlete Pradeep Somasiri coached by Sajith Jayalal has also showed his talent by winning a gold medal at the Asian Para Games in 2022. He ran in the T46 category and won the gold in the 1500m event with a Games Record also aims to do his best at this Paralympics. Anil Prasanna Jayalath will compete at 100m T-42/63 also had good records recently while the only female athlete Janani Dhananjana also youngest athlete just 18 years old and this is her first appearance at Paralympics for T -46/47 long jump event. The promising athlete from Kuliyapitiya excelled at Para Grand Prix meet in Morocco is coached by Nalanda Senarath.
Sri Lankan veteran Suresh Dharmasena has completed direct qualification for the Paralympics as the only wheelchair tennis player from the island to compete in Paris this year.
Dharmasena, graded 34th in the world, was announced by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) as having qualified directly. The Paralympic organisers allow the top 40 wheelchair players to compete in the Men’s singles event. Navid Rahim is the only swimmer of Paralympic Sri Lanka team and he will compete S9 400m free style event.
National Paralympic Committee made an early preparations to focus on thesec para athletes to take part more International events to get qualifying standard and Sports Ministry also supported for the foreign tours.
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