By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Commonwealth Games silver medal weight lifter Indika Dissanayake is once again ready to take part at the forthcoming World Weightlifting Championships which is scheduled to be held from September 17 to 28 in Pattaya, Thailand.
His ambition is to qualify for the next Olympics in 2020 and points earned from this world championships will be considered for qualification.
The 30-year-old weightlifter who hails from Hataraliyadda in Kandy said the preparation was important for him to get good achievements at international meets.“It’s not an easy task to get Olympic qualifications but the way I do my training gives me the confidence to achieve my goal. I already got a chance to take part in more international events that are very competitive. “However, we are very disappointed that we did not get the chance to take part at the recently concluded Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Samoa due to a visa refusal. I don’t know the reasons for this visa matter but we missed winning some medals in both senior and junior categories at this meet,” said Dissanayake. “I was lucky to win the silver medal at the last Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia. I was in the 69 kg weight category at this meet.
At the moment I am in the 73kg category but after the next Asian Championships, I have an idea to change my weight category to 67 kg to focus on the Olympics. The next Asian Championships will be the final trial for the Olympics”, added Dissanayake.
“We already have a diet plan given by our head coach R.B Wickramasinghe. Two doctors, Dr Lal Ekanayake and Dr Kiriella always lend their valuable services to us.”
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