Palitha Bandara finishes fifth in shot-put final

Palitha Bandara in action in the shot-put F63 event

By Susil Premalal

Sri Lanka’s Palitha Bandara was placed fifth among nine competitors in the shot-put F63 final of the 16th Tokyo Paralympic Games, which concluded at the National Stadium in Japan yesterday.

The 28-year-old soldier ended up with a performance of 13.40m but failed to improve on his personal best of 13.42m. He made steady progress and cleared a distance of 12.67m in his first attempt, 13.08m in his second attempt, 13.30m in his third attempt and 13.40m in his fourth attempt. 

However, he managed to clear only 13.30m and 12.26m in his fifth and sixth attempts.

Aled Davies of Great Britain who is also the world record holder of this event finished with 15.33m and won the Gold Medal while Sajad Mohammadin of Iran (14.88m) and Kuwait’s Faizal Sorour (14.13m) were placed second and third respectively.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka finished in 57th place out of 78 nations in the final medals table with a total of one Gold Medal and one Silver Medal.

China finished on top of the medals tally with 96 Gold, 60 Silver and 51 Bronze medals while pushing England to second place (41 Gold, 38 Silver and 45 Bronze). The USA ended in third winning 37 Gold, 36 Silver and 31 Bronze medals.