Sri Lanka surpasses overall medal haul at Asian Youth Para Games

Jason Jayawardene, Janani Wickramasinghe, Naveed Raheem, Galina Basnayake 

By Hishan Welmilla

Sri Lankan youth created history by surpassing their best-ever overall medal haul at the Asian Youth Para Games with an outstanding showing at the fourth edition of the event currently underway in Manama, Bahrain.

At the time of going to press, Sri Lanka had bagged nine medals (two Gold, four Silver, three Bronze) at the completion of the fourth day of the competition. The Event commenced on 2 December and is set to finish today (6 December). 

The Sri Lanka Paralympic contingent have bagged four medals at the Asian Youth Para Games 2021 in Bahrain. They won a Gold and Silver medal each and two Bronze medals.

In Swimming, Galina Basnayake won a Gold Medal in the S6-10 Girls 400m Freestyle. She won this with a personal best time of 5:25.27. She clinched another Gold Medal in the S6-10 100m Freestyle with a time of 1:12:09 and went on to bag her first Silver Medal in S6-10 Gils 100m Butterflies event with a time of 1:32:86.

Her swimming counterpart Naveed Raheem, the captain of the Sri Lankan contingent, won Bronze in the S6-10 Men’s 400m Freestyle.

In Athletics, four participated and three of them won medals. Jason Jayawardene secured his first Silver medal in the Men’s T/F 40 Shot Putt with a distance of 6.64 metres. He claimed his second Silver Medal in F 40 – Discuss Throw with a distance of 13.84 metres.

Janani Wickramasinghe was the star for the women in athletics. She secured three Bronze medals in this year’s competition. She registered her first Bronze in the Girls T47 200m with a time of 29.36 seconds. She won her second Bronze in the T47 – 100M with a time of 13.88m and third in T47 – Long Jump with a distance of 4.38 metres.

Safran Mohammed bagged a Silver medal in the T46 00m event with a time of 13.39 seconds.  2021 Asian Youth Para Games, also known as the 4th Asian Youth Para Games, is the fourth edition of multi-sport events for Asian athletes with disabilities. An estimated 800 athletes under the age of 20 are expected to compete in nine sports during the 2021 edition of the Asian Youth Para Games.

Janani Wickramasinghe (left) and Safran Mohammed (right) with his coach