Sri Lanka had a good opening day where they collected a total of 21 medals of which 11 were from Swimming while Weightlifting produced the only Gold Medal to come from other than swimming.
Weightlifting
In weightlifting Sri Lanka won one Gold Medal and three Silver Medals.
Sudesh Peiris demolished his competition on his way to the gold medal in the men’s 62kg weight class and set a new South Asian Games record in the ‘Clean and Jerk.’
Peiris lifted a total weight of 265kgs, where he lifted 115kgs in the ‘snatch’ and 150kgs in ‘clean and jerk.’
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Nepalese Bikash Thapa was a distance 2nd with a total of 242kgs. (Snatch 112kgs, clean and jerk 130kgs). Mostain Bella of Bangladesh won the bronze with a total of 225kgs. (Snatch 110kgs, clean and jerk 125kgs)
In the women’s 53kg weight class Chamari Mendis won the silver medal with a total weight of 150kgs (Snatch 65kgs, clean and jerk 85kgs). India’s Harshdeep Kaur won the gold medal with 171kgs (Snatch 73kgs, clean and jerk 98kgs).
Sri Lanka’s Dinusha Hansani won the Silver medal in women’s weightlifting (48kg weightclass).
Dinush lifted a total weight of 145kg’s with her ‘Snatch’ being 65kg’s and the ‘Clean and Jerk’ being 80kg’s.
Saikom Mirabai Chanu from India was the run-away winner lifting a total weight of 169kg’s (Snatch 79kg’s, Clean and Jerk 90kg’s).
It was a battle between Dinusha and Molla Shabira of Bangladesh for the Silver Medal where Shabira lifted 63kg’s in Snatch and 80kg’s in Clean and Jerk.
Chathuranga Lakmal Jayasooriya won another silver medal for Sri Lanka in the men’s 56kg weightclass.
Jayasooriya had to settle for the silver as he agonizingly failed to lift 131kgs in the clean and jerk which would have given him the gold medal.
India’s Gururaja won the gold lifting a total weight of 241kgs (Snatch 104kgs, clean and jerk 137kgs) while Jayasooriya only managed 239kgs (Snatch 111kgs, clean and jerk 128kgs).
Wrestling
In Wrestling Sri Lanka won two Silver Medals and three Bronze Medals while India won all the five Gold Medals which were on offer.
In the men’s 65kg Bronze medal match Sri Lanka’s W.M.C.Perera registered a comfortable 18-6 win over Afghanistan’s Zamir. In the first period Perera led 12-6 and kept his opponent scoreless while adding six more in the 2nd period.
S.D.Asanga won the Bronze medal in the men’s 57kg weight class defeating Nepal’s Jaimangal Yadav 10-0. All ten points for Asanga came in the first period.
The women’s competition was held in a round robin format as only four countries fielded their wrestlers.
Women’s 48 kg;
- Priyanka Singh (Ind) 12 Pts
- S.P.S. Niroshini (Sri) 8 Pts
- Nadi Chakma (Ban) 4
Women’s 55 kg;
- Archana (Ind) 12 Pts
- M.W.M.P.Kumari (Sri) 8 Pts
- Suma Chowdhury (Ban) 4 Pts
Women’s 60 kg;
- Manisha (Ind) 12 Pts
- Rina Akhtar (Ban) 8 Pts
- Priyanga Kumari (Sri) 3 Pts
Cycling
Hemantha Kumara won the Bronze Medal in the Men’s 40km Individual Time Trial finishing with a timing of 55mins 25.441secs. He was just about a second more than 2nd placed Manjeet Singh who finished 54mins 01.183secs and Arvind Panwar won the gold with a timing of 52mins 28.800secs.
Sriyalatha Wickramasinghe missed out on a bronze medal in the Women’s 30km Individual Time Trial as she finished 40 secs adrift of 3rd placed Sabiha Bibi of Pakistan.
