Sri Lanka flag bearer Chinthana Geethal Vidanage said that lack of rest between the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games hampered his preparations which resulted in him not completing the event yesterday.
Vidanage who had only a month’s rest between the two high profile competitions failed to complete the event in both occasion as he did not lift a single weight in the Commonwealth Games and lifted only 126kg from the snatch category in the Asian Games.
Vidanage who was seeded fourth in the snatch category in his group failed to live up to expectations failing in all three attempts in the clean and jerk category. “I don’t know what happened to me. I was planning to lift about 165-164 kg in the clean and Jerk, but adjust it to 160 according to competition situation” said Vidanage after the event.
The former gold medallist of the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and silver medallist in the 2010 edition made his Asian Games debut in this year at age of 33 as the second oldest competitor of his group.
“I think I should get rest before starting training again. I should make my mind to face tough challenges. Most of the countries who participated for the Asian Games are world championship countries such as China, Japan, both North and South Korea, so I was aiming to get used to compete with these world leading lifters in a competition” added Vidanage.
Vidanage is also aiming to qualify for the next Olympic Games in 2016 at Rio as he had earlier said it was his aim to qualify for the world showpiece through Asian Games which he failed to achieve.
“There are two World Championships before the Olympics and all the international events after this can be used to get qualify for the Olympics” said Vidanage.
