2018 Weightlifting Silver Medalist Indika Dissanayake and Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket captain Chamari Athapaththu have been named as the flag bearers of Sri Lanka for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
It should also be noted that from this year onwards, each country names a male and female athlete as captains, the flag bearers, instead of one. A flag bearer as the name suggests will carry the national flag of their contingent at the Parade of Nations of the opening ceremony and serve as outstanding role model of their country.
Chamari needs no special introduction for she is an ICC Top 10 ranked batter in both formats. Indika is also World Anti Doping Agency ambassador. Apart from them, the Sri Lankan contingent consists of 110 athletes and for the first time, will feature more women by a small margin. This is mainly due to the Sri Lanka Women’s Rugby and Cricket teams qualifying for the first time.
In the history of the Games, Sri Lanka has won 20 medals since the beginning in 1938 and have a few former medalists in the ranks, primarily in weightlifting and boxing, the two highest contributors in medals. Chinthana Vidanage is the only former Gold medalist who is currently in the contingent and is the oldest athlete.
The Commonwealth Games will be held in Birmingham, from the 28th of July to 8th of August. A total of 72 nations will take part and Sri Lanka has been taking part since its inception, excluding the years 1954, 1974 and 1986.
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