WEIGHTLIFTING AND WRESTLING SEEK WILDCARD ENTRY FOR OLYMPICS
Sri Lanka’s hopes of achieving the qualifying standard for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 in weightlifting and wrestling have been dashed. Four lifters (3 men and 1 woman) who took part in the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Uzbekistan from April 16-21 failed to achieve Olympic qualification while the Sri Lanka wrestling team failed to make it to Sofia, Bulgaria for the World Wrestling Championship (May 6-9) which was the final Olympic qualification event.
Weightlifters Nilanka Isurukumara (55kg), Indika Dissanayake (73kg) and Viraj Palangasinghe (61kg) and wrestler Chamara Malinda Perera (65kg) have missed out on going to the Olympics. The delay in getting visas prevented Perera and two officials (manager and coach) from participating in the 2021 World Wrestling Olympic qualification event.
Kumara claimed two medals; Silver in the clean & jerk event and Bronze for a combined total of 241kg.
Chathurika Priyanthi established three Sri Lanka records in the women’s 81kg weight class, despite not being able to achieve the qualifying standard.
Meanwhile, Sarath Hewavitharana, President, Sri Lanka Wrestling Federation (SLWF), who was to accompany the wrestling team to Bulgaria, is still hospitalized at IDH after being tested positive for Covid19 following a PCR test.
Considering the adverse health situation in the country, Hewavitharana and SLWF Secretary G. Nishanthan hope to request the respective international bodies and the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka to give them ‘wildcard entries’ for the Olympics.