Olympic ‘dream’
Only the positions change for the Karunaratne brothers, from court to chair and vice versa
It’s final — Sri Lanka will be represented by nine athletes and 17 officials at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, which will be on show from July 23 to August 8. Out of the nine athletes showjumper Mathilda Karlsson, gymnast Milka Gehani and sprinter Yupun Abeykoon have earned direct qualification while shooter Tehani Egodawela, shuttler Niluka Karuanratne, middle distance runner Nimali Liyanaarachchi, swimmers Matthew Abeysinghe and Aniqah Gaffoor and judoka Chamara Dharmawardhana have earned their passages Tripartite Quota Places, offered by a three-way collaboration between the IOC, the Association of National Olympic Committees (NOC) and the respective International Federations.
The Sri Lankan NOC released the final list of athletes and officials of those who will take wings to Tokyo where the total number becomes 26. In addition a delegation from NOC is likely to be present at the games on behalf of the country.
Looking at the final contingent, an athlete at least will have an official accompanying them besides two — Mathilda Karlsson and Milka Gehani. Karlsson, who will compete in equestrian as a jumping individual will have a team of five with her, as her competition involves a horse.
Suranjith Premadasa, the president of Sri Lanka Equestrian Association, has been included as the team manager. In addition there are four in the team — Nikolay Barisov as groom, Manfred Von Alwoerden as horse assistant personnel, Lilian Marie Cedric Jaky as veterinarian and Aenne Mueller as training pass. It is obvious in Karlsson’s case that a team of experts need to handle Chopin, the horse. But there are reservations in naming of team manager, when the named individual from Sri Lanka hardly has any orientation with the rest of the team, who are coming to Tokyo from Europe. Karlsson will be in action on August 3 and 4 at the Equestrian Park.
Gehani will compete in artistic gymnastics on July 25 with the final set for July 29 at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. She will be the only privileged athlete to have a manager and coach to assist with Kapila Jeevantha being named as team manager and coach Ranjana Tharanga being the second person to motivate the youngster, who is also a flag-bearer.
Swimmers Matthew Abeysinghe and Aniqah Gaffoor, in contrast will only have the services of Manoj Abeysinghe, who has been named as the coach, but will also multitask to make the two swimmers feel comfortable during preparations and competitions. Manoj’s credentials as a well qualified coach needs no introduction given his experience at similar events. He will be tasked to attend the Tokyo Aquatic Centre on six days, as the two swimmers compete on two different schedules. Gaffoor’s event, the Women’s 100m Butterfly will commence on July 24 and run through for three days while Matthews’ event, the Men’s 100m Freestyle, will take place from July 27 for three days.
Judoka Chamara Dharmawardhana, who will compete in the Men’s 73kg event, is also the appointed team captain of athletes. His event will take place on July 26 at the Nippon Budokan. Amal Ratnayake accompanies the athlete as coach.
Track athletes Yupun Abeykoon and Nimali Liyanaarachchi will have the luxury of their individual coaches with them during their quest at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. Liyanaarachchi will be the first of two in action when she enters Women’s 800m qualifiers on July 30 with her coach Sujith Abeysekara standing beside her. Abeykoon, one of the deserving athletes of the lot, will be in action on July 31 when the Men’s 100m qualifiers begin. The Italy-based sprinter will be accompanied by his personal coach Claudio Licciardello.
Shooter Tehani Egodawela will be competing in 10m Air Rifle event on July 24 at the Asaka Shooting Range. She is one of the two athletes that does not enjoy the luxury of her coach with her, as they have nominated a manager (Pradeep Edirisinghe). The National Shooting Sport Federation of Sri Lanka is the only local governing body to explain the reason for not having Egodawela’s coach U.M. Premalal.
Shuttler Niluka Karunaratne will become the first Sri Lankan badminton player to compete at three successive Olympics. He represented the country at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 and has announced that he would officially retire from international badminton after competing at Tokyo Olympics.
Currently ranked at 117 in Men’s Singles, according to BWF’s release on June 7, Karunaratne created an upset at London 2012, when he beat Kenichi Tago of Japan, who was ranked 8 at that time in the first round. But he lost to India’s Parupalli Kashyap in the elimination round. In Rio 2016, the now 36-year-old Lost to Chen Long of China, received a walkover from Kevin Cordon of Guatemala and defeated Adrian Dziolko of Poland, and bowed out of the competition.
However, Karunaratne’s farewell Olympic has already started to hint inapt precedence even before he leaves the shores of Sri Lanka. The reason for this being the name of his coach, who is none other than his younger sibling Dinuka, another national badminton player and an individual not qualified to coach yet. According to reliable sources, Karunaratne has initially entered his father’s name, Louis, as coach but due to reasons better known to those involved in the administrative process, the two-time Olympian had single-handedly entered his younger sibling’s name as coach, though the position was as ‘training partner’ earlier, a placement unavailable and unrecognised by the Olympic organisers. Even Sri Lanka Badminton has had no clue or idea as to how this positioning was made without their knowledge and most of its membership are in protest to what has taken place.
Besides these names in the list, the NOC’s media release also includes four names as Admin Officials. They are Gamini Jayasinghe (Chef de Mission), Wing Commander Chandana Liyanage (Press Attaché), Dr. Himan de Silva (COVID-19 Liaison Officer) and Hansika Wijayagunasekara (Administrative Personnel).
The contingent is expected to leave Sri Lanka on July 16, and all members have entered a bio security bubble at a star class hotel in Colombo, with daily PCR tests prior to the departure. Others from Europe (approximately seven members) and various other parts will join them in Tokyo at the Olympic Village.
In addition to this, the total Sri Lankan party at Tokyo Olympics is expected to be much more with NOC officials, officials from the Ministry of Sports Including the Minister and media personal taking wings few days after the ‘declared’ contingent of 26 depart the island.
What’s taking place now is an exercise that occurs once in every four years where officials outnumber the athletes. As it happens in the end, a handful of athletes make it to the top event, some deservingly and by merit, and some by other means. But above all, all the efforts, dream, every bit of sweat and hardship put into get Sri Lankan athletes to qualify for the Olympics, is ‘gone for a six’ with the touring contingent, as for most them it’s none other than a joy ride.
If the relevant authorities create a clear pathway to get the local athletes the confidence and provide the proper motivation, they will easily trust the system and mechanism even if they fail to qualify it to Olympics. If this happens in the future, higher authorities can effortlessly justify the massive expenditure they have budgeted to entertain the individuals, other than the athletes, to fly in and out and other purposes involved with the Olympics.