Full rugby and weightlifting contingents in spite of Ministry cuts
Sri Lanka has been pooled into a strong group at CWG in Rugby 7s - File pics
Sri Lanka will definitely be represented at rugby at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April this year, according to SLRFU’s vice president Lasitha Gunaratne.
At the same time the weightlifting squad also may get the green light to go ahead with its full contingent of eleven lifters, though it had earlier been pruned down to six.
Last week a five-member selection committee under former national athlete Sunil Gunawardena drastically pruned down Sri Lanka’s Commonwealth contingent, with Rugby being named as one of the sports completely dropped off.
The committee was appointed by Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera.
Initially, the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka named a Sri Lanka contingent of 82 athletes to take part in the Gold Coast games which will take place from April 5 for 15. However, the five member selection committee comprising Sunil Gunawardena (Chairman), General Daya Ratnayake, E.A.L.C.K. Edirisinghe, I.P. Wijeratne and Susanthika Jayasinghe, recommended that a squad of only 33 athletes be sent Down Under.
The original NOCSL recommendation was – Track and Field (7 men and 6 women) 13, Weightlifting 11, Boxing (3 men and 2 women) 5, Swimming (2 men and 2 women) 5, Beach Volleyball (2 men) 2, Badminton (3 men and 2 women) 5, Cycling (2 men and 1 women) 3, Wrestling (3men and 2 women) 5, Gymnastics (3 men and 3 women) 6, Table Tennis (3 men and 3 women) 6, Squash (2 men and 2 women) 4, Shooting (3 men and 2 women) 5, and Rugby (12 men) 12.
However, the selection committee dropped off only one athlete from the original Track and Field list of 13, justifying the big contingent on the basis that the athletes require exposure, although they were not among the medal prospects. But such consideration was not visible when the 11-member weightlifters’ contingent which is hopeful of at least four medals was cut to just six.
The committee recommended – Athletics 12, Weightlifting 6, Boxing 4, Swimming 4, Beach Volleyball 2, Wrestling 2, Squash 1 and shooting 1 while Badminton, Cycling, Gymnastics, Table Tennis and Rugby were deleted from the list.
SLRFU Vice President Gunaratne said told the Sunday Times, “The rugby contingent was selected by the Commonwealth Games authorities on merit and that did not have anything to do with a local selection process. I wonder under what criteria that they opted to keep Rugby out of the equation; besides rugby is the only team game that has been selected for the games from Asia. And we are making the trip.”
Sudesh Peiris (L) and Chinthana Vidanage have won medals at CWG before
Even in the Ministry’s selection criteria it is stated that medal prospects either at the Commonwealth Games or the Asian Games which will be followed soon after would be given consideration. Rugby is a huge medal prospect at the Asian Games.
Also the weightlifting authorities have not taken the drastic cut of their participants lightly. Weightlifting Federation President N. Hewamaddumage said, “As soon as we heard about this selection cut, we met Sports Minister Jayasekera and explained matters. We explained to him that we have been allocated a team of eleven members to the Commonwealth Games contingent on merit and no alterations of the list of names would be permitted. This means that if alterations to the squad is made, in all probabilities none of the weightlifters would be able to take part in the games and we explained this situation to the selection panel when we met them around two months ago.
“However the Sports Minister understood the plight of the weightlifters and said he would make arrangements to reverse the squad back to its original number of eleven, but, the decision of that would be officially announced only on February 5.”
It is learned the authorities of Badminton, Gymnastics, Cycling and Table Tennis will also be given another hearing on February 5 by the Ministry authorities. At the same time, if any of these accredited sports are not represented at the games, there is a likelihood of these sports getting blacklisted at future Commonwealth games.