From breadwinner to medal winner
Dilanka has higher goals to his sporting career
There are athletes after tasting the sweetness of success, getting carried away. Unlike them – Dilanka Isuru Kumara – winning the first medal in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games (CWG), has begun the work to get to the next great goal of becoming the first Sri Lankan to win at the World Weightlifting Championships.
He, however, won’t limit himself there though, as he is also working towards the quest of qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“In December, I have the World Weightlifting Championship coming up, in Columbia. In our participation history in the championship, a Sri Lankan is yet to win there. I’m gearing to break and set a winning trend,” Dilanka disclosed to the Sunday Times, in his first-ever conversation to the press since the bronze at Birmingham.
“The Olympic qualifying meets start from this World Championship. I have to participate in those games and gather points. Based on those points, the selection will be decided. The federation (Sri Lanka Weightlifting Federation) has a list of those qualifying meets. We go based on those,” he added.
But in the path preceding his first major medal, Dilanka had to tame and tackle a different set of tears and travails. Since the demise of his father, the onus of the family burden was also shouldered upon him, inevitably.
Dilanka (L) with his mother, Chandani Kumari and brother
“During my up-and-coming weightlifting days when I lost him, I was in the mental state to give up this sport. Because my father too had a dream and a desire, I decided and was determined to stay in the game”.
In fact, it is his late father, whom he recounted immediately in the afterglow of his win.
“I remembered my father only, instantly,” he recalled.
“He had a big dream that I need to win in these big stages”.
Forced to juggle his personal and professional life, that was a chief reason as to why he was pushed to that mental state of giving up, Dilanka reiterated. However, now, though, after winning the bronze in the Men’s 55kg weight class lifting a total weight of 225kgs, his village and town of Udagama, Kurunegala hails him as a hero.
“They feted and felicitated me upon my return, hosting a series of receptions. From the town, I was taken in a parade to my village,” Dilanka, 26, said of the reception he received.
“My friends and kith and kin were filled only with happiness. They also hoped and looked forward to me winning in the sport. They won’t be that happy, in case I lose and neither will I be”.
In his bid to make all and sundry proud, he had spent great hours behind the scenes, and consequently, going into the contest with good confidence.
“Yes, I was very much confident in myself. My coach also advised, to participate in the qualifying matches, hence we know the quality of the opponents and the weights they’re dealing with. We had also trained far more than them before we took wings to Birmingham. Hence, I had firm confidence that somehow I can clinch a medal”.
“No nervousness as such. Because I trained according to those (opposition’s details). In my training, I had lifted weights heavier than them. Hence, I was entirely confident I would win any medal”.
“But the weight of the win is such….the win was valuable and heavier than the weights I had practiced,” Dilanka declared.
Dilanka, the eldest child in the now family of three, not only balanced his family and personal weight, but also did well by bringing a medal for his country. He had entered his maiden CWG with high hopes and is delighted he set the tone and the medal tally for his nation. Responding to the conversation between him and his mother, hours ahead of his event, the Army Corporal explained, “I had been unsuccessful in previous occasions. Consequently, and naturally, I got dragged down and fell. But this time, amma (mother) blessed, wished and injected confidence in me saying I am capable of winning the event. I also had the will along with her blessings”.
“My mother was over the moon and was indescribable”.
The transformation from a breadwinner to medal winner, has understandably made his mother, Chandani Kumari, to be delighted.
“Winning against the world means beyond words. He might have won a bronze, but it is a gold for me,” Kumari, 42, said.
“It is pure happiness. As a mother, I saw him dedicating and devoting long hours of hard work. In the backdrop of those, he finally went. Hence, it was speechless”.
As a labourer challenged by an irregular income, she did have mild fears. Nevertheless, the faith she pinned on her son drove him to win it by hook or crook.