Sri Lankan wrestler Chamara Silva who was edged out by Alex Gladkov of Scotland in the bronze medal bout (Freestyle 65kg) of the Men’s Wrestling Championship of the Commonwealth Games said that country’s talents go wasted due to lack of proper training.
“Sri Lankan wrestlers miss the opportunity to excelling at international level due to lack of proper training,” said Chamara who reached the semi finals of this competition despite training for a short period ahead of the Games.
Perera beat Adulai Rogers of Sierra Leone in the first round and beat New Zealand’s Craig Miller convincingly in the quarter finals to book semi final berth. Perera was edged out in the semi finals by Yogeshwar Dutt of India.
In the bronze medal bout his opponent received the full backing of the local crowd on Thursday.
“I am really disappointed. I came to the highest level a Sri Lankan has reached at international level in wrestling in the history of the sport. But missing the medal at the last hurdle is really disappointing. We only trained for one and half months. We used a few mattresses at Wanathamulla Community Centre to train. I am happy that I could reach this level after training for such a short period. I thank Sri Lanka Navy, our coaches Shanthilal and Jagath Piyaratana for the support and the Sports Ministry and the Olympic Committee for providing this opportunity,” said Perera.
“The Indian wrestlers are the leading wrestlers here. They plan for four years. They received six months training in USA ahead of this Games. We too received ten days training in Iran. I thank the authorities for that. But if we get better training we will be able to do much better,” said the 24-year-old.
Achini Upuli advance to quarter finals
Meanwhile Achini Ratnasiri and Upuli Weerasinghe advanced to the quarter finals of the women’s badminton doubles. They beat a duo from New Zealand in the last 16 round to book their quarter final berth. They were scheduled to meet an Indian pair in the quarter final yesterday.
In the men’s singles Karunaratne brothers Niluka and Dinuka were edged out in the last 16 round.
