Dulanjan reignites diving career Down Under
Champion diver Dulanjan Fernando has shrugged off the disappointment of failing to make the cut for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games by reinventing his career after moving to Australia to pursue higher studies last year.
The 21-year-old has reignited his dream of representing Sri Lanka at the 2022 Commonwealth Games after achieving personal best performances in springboard events at the Australian Age National Diving Championships held in Melbourne and Queensland this month.
Now he is preparing to qualify for the Australian Open Nationals by competing in his favourite platform event at the Victorian Nationals next weekend.
“It is a tough one. If I qualify, I need to travel to Sydney in June to participate in the Australian Nationals which will serve as Olympic trials. My target is to participate in the Commonwealth Games and do my high performance. I can go to the Olympics but I have time. I am still 21. I am planning to train for another five or six years,” said Dulanjan confidently in an interview with the Sunday Times.
A talented all-round sportsman who excelled in cricket, swimming, gymnastics and water polo at Royal College apart from diving, Dulanjan was unkindly cut from the Sri Lanka contingent despite being selected for diving at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Officially he could not be slotted in because Sri Lanka could not carry more than 300 athletes and officials though the latter as usual outweighed the actual number of participants who would by vying for glory.
“I got selected but unfortunately I couldn’t go because of politics. There weren’t enough slots apparently,” said Dulanjan who perhaps paid the price because his maternal uncle Mahinda Liyanage headed the swimming body at the time. The plea of the schoolboy to then Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera also fell on deaf ears with National Olympic Committee officials also pacifying him to “try again next time”.
Many others in his place would have been disheartened and walked away from the sport after the injustice meted out to him by the highest authorities governing sport in the country. Dulanjan did take a sabbatical from the sport to complete his A/Ls and then enrolled with Deakin University in Melbourne to follow a degree in Sports Science. Even the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic which allowed him to attend only four classes at the university, has not deterred his determination of going for glory at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
Dulanjan stands proudly on the podium at the Australian Age National Championship in Queensland
“I wanted to start my diving career again with these facilities. I didn’t have so many facilities when I was in Sri Lanka. I wanted to give a try,” said Dulanjan who joined Mel Am Diving Club. “They were interested in me. They asked me to come and train with them. I am diving now and training again,” he said happily after having taken part in two competitions in Melbourne and Queensland
Competing in the 19-24 men’s category at the Victorian Age National Championship in Melbourne, he won gold in the 1m and 3m springboard events to qualify for Australian Age National Championship in Queensland where he came fourth in the 3m and second in the 1m events.
More significantly he achieved personal bests of 278 points (3m) in Melbourne and 287 points (1m) in Queensland.
“I have improved a lot. I am doing some big dives. In Sri Lanka we did all the hard dives the hard way. We didn’t have facilities in dry land. In here there is everything,” said Dulanjan who wants to improve his dives in the 3m and 10m which are Olympic events.
At the moment he is doing forward 3 ½ inward 2 ½ backward 2 ½ reverse 2 ½. “I need to perfect those dives now. In competition I need to perform six dives – forward, back, reverse, inward, twist and an extra dive,” said Dulanjan who could not participate in the 10m event in the Victoria Nationals since he was a late entrant.
“I am improving myself training four days a week. I can feel the difference. I am pretty confident in my category,” said Dulanjan though participating in competitions is a strain on him financially.
He spent A$ 2000 from his own pocket for the Queensland event. “I don’t have sponsors. I have to balance everything on my own – studies, work and training. There are a lot of meets coming up. In November I have to go to Gold Coast,” said Dulanjan who has written to the Sports Ministry and NOC for financial assistance to maintain his high performance training.
Dulanjan Kaushalya Fernando emerged as a diving prodigy hailing from a family with a passion for aquatic sports. His uncle Mahinda Liyanage is a reputed diving coach while Dulanjan’s elder sister Eshana Fernando coaches Musaeus College.
A good athlete who took part in long and high jump, Dulanjan has been diving since he was in grade 4. He participated in backstroke events at National swimming competitions and had to give up cricket though he captained the Royal under-15 team as a wicketkeeper batsman.
Adjudged the most outstanding Royal College sportsman for two consecutive years in 2017 and 2018, he captained the school in gymnastics, diving and water polo leading the team to victory when they regained the Hayman Cup against S. Thomas’ after five years.
He first represented the country at the 2015 Asian Age Group Championship in Bangladesh while his career peaked the following year. In 2016 he won three silver medals in diving at the Singapore Invitation National Championship competing in the 17-22 age category and also a silver and bronze medal in the South Asian Championship held in Colombo. A bronze medallist as a 14-year-old in his debut at the Nationals, the high point of Dulanjan’s career was being among the top eight at the Asian Championship in Tokyo in the 10m event.
Sri Lanka may have been unkind to their diving prodigy but moving to Australia could be a blessing in disguise to achieve his sporting ambitions.