23 July 2021 09:34 pm Views - 691
By Shehan Daniel reporting from Tokyo, Japan
Three of Sri Lanka's nine athletes at Tokyo 2020 will feature on the first full day of competition at the Olympics tomorrow. Tehani Egodawela will be the first Sri Lankan to take part, in the Women's 10m Air Rifle event, at 5 a.m. (Sri Lanka time). She will be part of a 50-women field vying for one of the eight places in the finals. Later in the day, Sri Lanka's youngest athlete at Tokyo 2020 17-year-old Aniqah Gaffoor will swim in the first heat of the Women's 100m Butterfly event at 3:35 pm (SL time). Niluka Karunaratne, ranked 117th in the world, will then take on world number 10 Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei in his first group play match in the Men's Badminton competition at 4:30 p.m. (SL time).The 204-nation event will kick into gear, with events in 24 sports. Archery, Road Cycling, Fencing, Judo, Shooting, Taekwondo and Weightlifting will offer the first medals of the Tokyo Olympics Sunday.The world’s biggest sporting event will take place without spectators, after organisers chose to shut the games to the public for fears that it could add to Japan’s rising number of Covid-19 cases.