SRI LANKA’S PARALYMPIANS TO BEGIN CAMPAIGN TOMORROW

BY SUSIL PREMALAL

Sri Lanka’s Paralympians will begin their campaign at the 16th Paralympic Games in Tokyo, with Ranjan Dharmasena, Mahesh Jayakody and Sampath Bandara the first to compete in Japan tomorrow (27). Dharmasena will compete in the wheelchair tennis tournament Men’s Singles first-round, while Jayakody will also be in action in the rowing PR1 Men’s Singles sculls heat and in the Men’s Singles sculls repechage one.

In addition, Bandara will compete in the archery Men’s Recurve Open Ranking round at the Yumenoshima Park and once again he will be in action on September 3 in the Men’s recurve Open elimination round event. Incidentally, Dharmasena, Jayakody and Bandara will be representing the Paralympics for the first time.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s flag-bearer Dinesh Herath will compete in the Men’s javelin throw F46 final on August 30 at the Olympic Stadium. On the same day, Samitha Dulan and Sampath Hettiarachchi will compete in the javelin throw F64 event.

Kumudu Priyanka will compete in the Women’s 100m T-47 round-one heats on August 31 and will also participate in the T-47 long jump on September 3. On the same day, Maduranga Subasinghe will compete in the 400m T-47 round-one heat and on September 4 Palitha Bandara will compete in the shot-put F-63 final. Sri Lanka won a Bronze Medal each in the 2012 Para Games in London and at the Rio de Janeiro Para Games in 2016.