Last chance for Lankan athletes
The 2016 IPC Athletic First Asian Oceania Championships will take place from today ( March 6) to March 12 in Dubai, UAE where leading Nine Para Athletes from Sri Lanka will take part. This will serve as the final selection trial for the Rio Olympics where Asian, New Zealand and Australians – embracing 44 countries will take part.
This is also the last chance for the Sri Lanka Para Olympic team to qualify for the Rio Para Olympics as well as for the other Asia Oceanic countries. The Sri Lankan team took wing to the United Arab Emirates on Friday.
The Sri Lanka team for the six day event has been selected from the Para Athletic pool consisting of 24 para athletes. The 24 in the current para athletic pool was selected from the Para Athletics National Championships held at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Sports Complex last year.
There is only one female athlete in the team. She is Amara Indumathi from Rehab Lanka Sports Club. The others are athletes from the Army para athletes. Also in the team is Pradeep Sanjaya who won a Bronze Medal in the T-46 400 M at the London Para Olympics in 2012.
At the last Para Olympic Games Sri Lanka was represented by five athletes and it is expected that several other para athletes will qualify to take part this year as well. The athletes who will be proceeding to Dubai are within the first ten in World Para Rankings.
The Sri Lanka Pare Athletic Team: Prasanna Jayalath (T-42 100M, 200M and Long Jump); Pradeep Sanjaya (T-46 200 M and 400M); Amara Indumathi (T-46 100M, 200M and 400 M); A.P.K. Hettiarachchi (T-44 100M. 200M and 400M); H.A.C. Hettiarachchi (T-44 Javelin); R.M.A.K. Weerasinghe (T-46 200M and 400 M); K.P.S. Ekanayake (T-46 Javelin); C.H.B. Indrapala (T-42 100M, 200M and Long Jump) and E.L. P.L. Edirisinghe (T-46 High Jump).
Manager: Col. Raja Kulasekera; Coaches: Rohitha Fernando and P.E. Nelson.