A nine-member Sri Lankan contingent for the 2016 Paralympic Games will take wing to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in early September. The team will be led by Anil Prasanna Jayalath who will compete in the T42 100 and 200 metres and the long jump, whilst Gamini Ekanayake and Dinesh Priyantha Herath will take part in F44 javelin and Sampath Hettiarachchi will take part in the F46 javelin throw.
Ajith Hettiarachchi will line up alongside the captain in the T44 100 and 200 metres and the 400 metres events. Amara Indumathi will compete in the women’s T47 200 and 400 metres and the long jump, together with Indika Chuladasa in the T42 100 and 200 metres. Upali Rajakaruna will be taking part in wheelchair tennis, whilst Sampath Bandara will aim for medals in Archery.
The Sri Lankan Paralympic contingent to Rio is powered by Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka’s premier telecommunications service provider, who is a long-standing partner of disabled sports in Sri Lanka.
Dialog is the proud sponsor of the National Paralympics Committee and the Sri Lanka Army Para Games Committee from 2015 to 2017 and first sponsored the Sri Lanka Paralympic contingent in the year 2000, followed by 2004, 2008 and 2012 including sponsorship of the National Sports Festival for the Disabled.
The Sri Lankan contingent is vying for another medal at the Rio Games after the heroics of Paralympian, Pradeep Sanjaya, who won the nation’s first medal at the 2012 Long Paralympic Games.
Pradeep Sanjaya secured a bronze medal in the 400 metres T46 category with the timing of 49.28 seconds to secure Sri Lanka’s first podium finish at the Paralympics.
At the IPC Asia-Oceania Championships this year, Sri Lanka Paralympian won six gold medals, four silvers and the five bronze medals and are expected to excel at the main stage in Rio.