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| Nethmi Porathotuge with her Bronze medal won at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games
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Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 Sri Lanka contingent Chef de Mission Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Dampath Fernando is of the view that teenage wrestler Nethmi Porathotuge is a future Olympic medallist following her performance at the Commonwealth Games.
Nethmi won a Bronze medal in the women’s 57 kg freestyle event, marking Sri Lanka’s first-ever medal in the sport of wrestling and becoming the youngest ever Sri Lankan medallist at the Commonwealth Games at 18.
“I saw her performance and I am quite impressed with her. My personal feeling is she’s definitely an Olympic medallist provided she is properly guided,” said Fernando. “We have to think about the next level how you are going to train her for the Olympics. For that we have to think differently. The present local coach has done his maximum, now we have to think beyond that. I don’t think the present coach potential is enough for Nethmi to go for a medal in the Olympics.”
“We have to find ways and means to give her the kind of training and exposure at a different level because she is a child who is 100% focussed. It’s remarkable the way she is motivated. She was training in Hungary with the local coach. She should continue to get that foreign training exposure under a very professional wrestling coach. If we can do that it’s worth the money spent on her because she will definitely go for a medal.”
Nethmi according to Fernando was the one bright spark that came out for Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth Games.
“The rest have a long way to go.” (ST)
