Cash rewards for Tokyo Paralympic medal winners

By Susil Premalal

Tokyo Paralympic Games medal winners Dinesh Priyantha Herath and Samitha Dulan are set to receive a huge cash prize from the Sports Ministry once they arrive on September 7.

Gold Medalist Herath will receive a cash award of Rs. 50million while the Bronze Medalist Dulan will receive a cash award of Rs. 20m under the directions from the National Sports Council (NSC).

This was confirmed to the Daily Mirror yesterday by Amal Edirisooriya, Director General of the Department of Sports Development of the Ministry of Sports.

Edirisooriya further said that the award presentation to the two Para athletes will be made during a ceremony once the Covid-19 pandemic is over.     

The Sports Ministry has also made arrangements to provide a red carpet welcome for the two medal winners during their arrival on September 7.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Para Athletes Maduranga Subasinghe and Kumudu Priyanka will compete in their respective events at the National Stadium in Tokyo tomorrow (September 3).

Subasinghe, who is in the world ranking of 10th position, will compete in the Men’s 400m T47 event while Priyanka will participate in the Women’s long jump T46 event.

This will be the second event for Priyanka at the Tokyo Paralympics following her unsuccessful effort in the 100m T47 event.

 Subasinghe has a personal best of 50.01m, which is the 10th best performance for 2021 while Priyanka won the Bronze Medal at the 2021 World Para Athletics Grand Prix with a performance of 4.89m.