22 June 2023 07:11 am Views - 2477
The Wushu Federation of Sri Lanka have been left fuming after Sri Lanka Navy has opted to deny two of their athletes world-class training scholarships of three months in Iran ahead of the Asian Games in Hangzhou in China later this year.
Pathum Balawardana of Sri Lanka Navy narrowly missed out on bagging Sri Lanka a medal in the Asian Games back in 2018, but with the support of Wushu Federation has now become one of the hottest prospects in Sri Lanka to finally secure a medal in Asian Games after nearly a decade.
Hence, the Sri Lanka Wushu Federation managed to convince one of the strongest wushu federations in the world, Iran, to allow three Sri Lankans (two Navy officers, one Army officer) to train under the top class coaching of Abbas Sheibak from June to August ahead of Asian Games in September.
However, up to date, none of these athletes have been able to go to Iran after Sri Lanka Navy denied the opportunity to get a much better training for the Asian Medal hopefuls.
President of Wushu Federation Sri Lanka - Manel Dharmakeerthi believes that the Navy may have made this decision in order to have their athletes take part in the Defense Services Games.
"We as a federation clearly see the potential in these boys. We have not won an Asian Medal in ages. So we worked really hard to get these kids a much needed preparation of highest quality in Iran including top training, food and accomodations and everything. So we initially asked SL Navy at least to sponsor them for their air travels because we thought they'd be genuinely happy to see their players making progress. But they directly denied that. For us as a federation what matters the most is our athlete, so we took up everything on our hand and tried sending these players to Iran but now they say they can't release players until July 9 and I understand that is because Navy want these guys to take part in Defense Services Games," Dharmakeerthi told Daily Mirror.
The Wushu President further questioned whether the county should not come first in scenarios of this nature.
"We have been informed by Wushu Federation of Iran to send our players from June 10 because late arrival could absolutely hamper their preparation. But Navy doesn't seem to think that winning Asian Medal is important for the country which is very disappointing" he added further.
Dharmakeerthi further revealed that National Olympic Committee Chairman Suresh Subramaniam has extended his support to the Wushu Federation of Sri Lanka though a lot depends on how Ministry of Sports involve in this case.
Ministry of Sports when contacted by Daily Mirror revealed that the arrangements are being made to ensure that the players are sent to Iran as soon as possible.
"We have actually received a letter from the Wushu Federation with regard to this situation and we understand the country has to come first. So we have informed them to release the players in order to attend the training in Iran," Director General Sports Aruna Muthumala told Daily Mirror.
In 2018, then Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara had got the cabinet approval for the athletes to be released from respective clubs in scenarios of the nature.
(Harsha Amarasinghe)