IGNORED COORAY HEADS TO KENYA FOR TRAINING
The continued snubbing by country’s sports authorities has not deterred Sri Lanka’s marathon champion as he heads to Kenya for a six week-long training ahead of August’s World Athletics Championship in China.
The 37-year-old Anuradha Indrajith Cooray who is domiciled in United Kingdom since 2005 is one of the two Sri Lankan athletes to earn a direct entry to the World meet as well for 2016 Rio Olympics after his record breaking run at April’s London Marathon.
He clocked 2 hours 13 minutes and 47 seconds to grab the 40 year-old Sri Lankan record held by marathon great S.L.B. Rosa since 1975.
Cooray, who works as a sales assistant in a London bakery has requested for a sum of Rs 3.5 million from the Sports Ministry for his training upto Rio Games next year.
“I have made this request several times before with hope, however my pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Yet I made another request following my record breaking run but sadly there has not been any positive response yet,” said Cooray who represented Sri Lanka at the 2004 and 2012 Olympic Games.
“There’s not much time left before the World Championships, so I decided to travel to Kenya with my own funds, because it’s important that I fine tune myself before the meet. I hope they ( Ministry of Sports) will reimburse the costs involved at some stage,” said Cooray. He will be leaving on June 28. Cooray’s journey has been remarkable during the last 12 months and his record breaking run at the London Marathon should have earned many accolades, for he has shown a remarkable commitment and perseverance to stay afloat but instead has been constantly snubbed by the authorities. “It’s important that I train with the world’s best and Kenya is the best place for high altitude training,” he said. He was in Kenya for three weeks before the London Marathon.
Cooray won the South Asian Games gold medal in 2004 just months before leaving the country due to a personal issue and recommenced his athletics career in 2008. The World Athletics Championships will be held in Beijing from August 22-30.