Asian Para Games: SL team captain Dinesh Priyantha wins gold with Asian record

By Dhammika Ratnaweera

Sri Lankan Para athletes once again came to the limelight with adding three more medals at the Asian Para Games which now  in progress in Jakartha ,Indonesia. According to the Manager of the team Colonal Deepal Herath ,Dinesh Priyantha Herath  the skipper of the team this time really performed well with an Asian record at the F-46 Javelin throw . Dinesh the Paralympic and world para championships medallist once again proved his ability with 61.84 m which is new Asian record this time.

Colonal Deepal Herath said Dinesh is the third gold medal winner for Sri Lanka and two of them Dinesh and sprinter Amila Prasan  set up new Asian record which is very remarkable achievement Prashan the fastest Asian athlete with 100m record added more glamour to the meet.

Meanwhile Gurjar Sindar Singh of India had to be satisfied with Silver coming short with a throw of 61.33m at T-46 Javalin throw behind to Dinesh Priyantha. Fellow Indian Rinku secured Bronze with a throw of 60.92m. However most expected athlete Indian Devendra the current world record holder  was a disappointed athlete  in this event and  he had to be satisfied with a fourth placed finish with a best throw of 59.17m.Actually Devendra was the previous record holder of this event with 58.89 m in 2014 South Korean Asian Para Games

Sri Lankan Asian games debutant Palitha Bandara won Sri Lanka’s fifth Silver medal with a throw of 13.21m in the Men’s Shot Put F42/61/63. Sajad Mohommadin of Iran won gold with a throw of 15.27m while Rikshimov Mukhammad of Uzbekistan was placed third with a throw of 13.12m.Palitha Bandara the army soldier from Matale recently won the best athlete at the Army Para Games at Diyagama with two records of Disscus throw and Shot Put repeated his performances in this Para Games to add fifth silver medal for Sri Lanka. He also  had to satisfied with new Sri  Lanka record with this distance.

Meanwhile Sri Lankan wheel chair tennis pair Suresh Ranjan Dharmasena and Lasantha Suresh Ranaweera  created Sri Lankan history with grabbes first ever Asian medal with winning bronze medal defeating Thailand 6-1, 6-2  , two clear straight sets.

Sri Lanka already with four golds, five silver and four bronze  finsiged 14^th out of 43 countries after the sixth day while China with gold 129, silver 64 and bronze 48 were on top of the medal table . South Korea with 43 gold, 37 silver and 34 bronze at the third place of the medals table.