Sri Lanka wins seven medals
Sri Lankan athletes with the head coach and Asian official
Sri Lanka secured seven medals including a gold and two silver at the Modern Pentathlon Asian Cup 2019 held in Burabay, Kazakhstan last week. The gold medal for Sri Lanka came from Gayani Dasanayake, who excelled in the Individual Female Biathle event, motivating her team mates to perform better. Dasanayake, an Airwoman, took up the sport recently, and made her country proud with an achievement that is overwhelming.
The two silver medals for Sri Lanka came from the Individual Male Biathle and Individual Male Triathle events. Soldier Sajeewa Udayanga and Airman Asanka Nilaweera were the medal winners in the two respective events. The two went onto secure two bronze medals by finishing third in the Individual Male Triathle and Individual Male Biathle events respectively, as the team mates went on to bag the silver and bronze medals in the two events with ease.
The remaining two bronze medals were won by the two relay teams that competed in the two respective categories. Gayani Dasanayake and Dilanka Rajapakse teamed up to win the bronze medal of the Biathle Mix Relay event while Dasanayake teamed up with Asanka Nilaweera to finish third in the Triathle Mix Relay event.
Sri Lanka fielded a team of four athletes, three male and a female, for the four-day event, accompanied by a coach cum official. They competed in Individual Biathle and Triathle events as well as in Mix Relay events. Athletes from several Asian countries including Russia, India and Kazakhstan participated at the event.
“After the encouraging results, Modern Pentathlon Federation of Sri Lanka (MPFSL) is now confidently moving ahead with the development of the sport in Sri Lanka at a faster pace. We are hoping to introduce the fourth discipline of the sport, Fencing, and participate in the upcoming Tetrathlon events in the next few months. The ultimate goal will be to introduce all five disciplines and field athletes in Modern Pentathlon Regional and World Championship events in 2020,” stated Nishanthe Piyasena, the President of MPFSL.
Piyasena went on to say that the Asia Cup event was an important step in the process, MPFSL to gain experience and measure the skill levels of its athletes against other competitors in the Asian region.
“We hope this result would be an encouragement to get more athletes into Modern Pentathlon in Sri Lanka. We also hope that more female athletes will be encouraged to take part in the sport, the Asia Cup results show that there is great potential in Sri Lanka.”
The Sri Lanka team included Sajeewa Udayanga and Dilanka Rajapakse of Sri Lanka Army and Asanka Nilaweera and Gayani Dasanayake of Sri Lanka Air Force. Subasiri Perera of Sri Lanka Army, accompanied the team as Coach and Official.