Day 1 of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games had a decent start for the Sri Lankan team, with a busy day having 7 sports being played and a few wins recorded in the racket sports.
Squash was the most successful sport yesterday as Ravindu Laksiri, Shamil Wakeel and Yeheni Kuruppu advanced into the Round of 32. Ravindu beat Shomari Wiltshire (Guyana) 3-1 and Yeheni had 3-2 a close fight against Ashley Khalil of the same country. Shamil overturned his match in the last 3 sets to win 3-2 against Shawn Simpson of Barbados.
The Badminton Mixed team beat Australia 3-2. Mixed Doubles pair Sachin Dias and Thilini Hendahewa, Men’s Singles player Niluka Karunaratne and partering with Sachin for Men’s Doubles, won their sets. The Women’s double and singles saw defeats.
Rugby 7’s saw a historic moment where Tharinda Ratwatte scored a try against New Zealand in their opener. The match ended 63-5 and the match against England was an improvement of 47-19. Ratwatte, Sooriyabandara and Piyaratne scored a try each. The Women’s team lost 57-00 and 60-00 to England and New Zealand Women.
Basketball 3×3 saw a closely fought match against Kenya Men in the 2nd game. The Women’s team lost both their matches to Kenya and Scotland. The Men’s team also lost to Scotland in their opener.
Disaster struck in Artistic Gymnastics as Hansha Kumarasinghe sustained an injury midway and Ruchira Fernando being the only one to complete all his events. However, Ruchira qualified to the All Round finals.
In swimming, Akalanka Peiris finished 2nd place in his Heats with his season’s best timing of 24.89s for Men’s 50m Butterfly. However he didn’t advance to the Semi finals as he finished overall 22nd out of 55.
In Boxing, Sanjeewa Bandara lost his bout to England’s Joseph Tyers in the Light Welter Category. Day 2 will see the continuation of the same sports and Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket will play their first match against England.
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