Karateka Chirayu to represent Sri Lanka in Japan
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Chirayu Wijekoon, a promising martial arts athlete, has been selected to represent Sri Lanka at the 13th World Karate Championship to be held in Tokyo, Japan on October 14 and 15. Chirayu, now 23, is a former student of Royal College, Colombo, and is a Black Belt Dan 2. He has recorded a few victories in the recent past, including at the recent Asian Karate Championship.
He began his career in karate at a very young age and showed promise early by becoming second runner-up at the 3rd National Full Contact Karate Championship in the age group of 10-11 in 2011. In 2013, he emerged the Under-14 champion at the 5th National Full Contact Karate Championship.
Chirayu has represented Sri Lanka at the Shinkyokushinkai Karate Championship held in Korea in 2016, but his glorious outing was in 2017, where he emerged champion of the 16-17 age category at the 16th Shinkyokushinkai Full Contact Karate Championship. The same year he represented Sri Lanka at the Shinkyokushinkai Karate Championship held in Japan.
Last year he became the runner-up at the National Full Contact Karate Championship and went on to represent Sri Lanka at the Asian Full Contact Karate Championship held in Malaysia. Chirayu was trained by Shihan Piyaratne and later by Kasun Jayawardene.