Sri Lanka lost the gold medal opportunity in the male team kata and finally ended with a silver medal. Host Nepal secured the gold medal. Sri Lanka won bronze medals in the female team kata and women’s singles kata events.Sri Lanka finished with a bronze medal each in both the men’s and women category.
Ranuka Prabhath (taekwondo) who won the first gold medal for Sri Lanka.Anika Seneviratne and Anjalika Kurera registered victories in the first round singles against Bangladesh. Anika won 6/2, 6/3 and Anjalika won 6/0, 6/1. In the women’s doubles Alana Seneviratne and Rushana Wijeyasuriya registered a win in two set 6/3, 6/1 over Bangladesh. In the men’s event Sri Lanka lost both singles and doubles against Pakistan.
Sri Lanka drew nil-all with Maldives in their group match played at the Dasarath Stadium. Sri Lanka expressed their dissatisfaction over the rescheduling of the football tournament. Speaking at a press conference, Sri Lanka head coach MN Packeer Ali said they were wondering about the change in schedule against the rules and regulations. “We had prepared our strategy as per the schedule but now we are not sure of our schedule after the change,” said Ali. “The teams have 20 players in their squad and it is not possible to play matches every day and that will cause injury to the players. The level of football will go down if we have to play every day and we request the concerned authorities to consider changing the schedule,” he added.
Ali also accused the hosts of taking undue advantage. “The schedule clearly shows that certain teams get adequate rest. In football, we talk about Fair Play and it should be equal to all teams,” he said. Ali said he had already forwarded the schedule to the Football Federation of Sri Lanka. “I will not take a decision on my own as it’s up to the Federation to decide on the matter.”
Six athletes sit O/L exams at SL Embassy
Six athletes from the Sri Lanka team were sitting the G.C.E. Ordinary level examination at the Sri Lanka embassy in Kathmandu. Chathuni Bhagya and Chamudhi Prathiba were from Princess of Wales College and participating in fencing sports. Two were from Visakha Vidyalaya Yehani Kuruppu (Squash) and Ganga Seneviratne (Swimming), two from Ladies College Ayela Chitti (Table Tennis) and Alana Seneviratne (Tennis). Two examiners from the Department of Examination were conducting the examination.
Speaking to the Daily News general secretary of the National Olympics committee of Sri Lanka Maxwell de Silva thanked the Sri Lanka ambassador for helping them to conduct the examination.“We believe education is most important while engaging in sports. When the Asian Games was last held one athlete did his Advance Level examination in Jakarta,” he said.
