Sri Lankans in action today at Special Olympics 2015

By Hishan Welmilla

Sri Lankans athletes who are competing at the Special Olympics 2015 will be in action today (29) in track and field events at the USC’s Loker Stadium here in Los Angeles, USA.

Sri Lanka’s Diliki Fernando will compete in the women’s 400m event which scheduled at 9:30 a.m. local time (10 p.m. Sri Lanka time). Dilki has competed in the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece in women’s 200m Division F11 and won seventh place while securing a bronze medal at long jump division F11. 

Three Sri Lankans will compete in the men’s 100m event scheduled to get underway at 1 p.m. local time. (00.30 a.m. 30 July Sri Lanka time). Akbo Manjula Jayawardana, Mayooran Arasakulasooriyan and Manojan Jeyachandran are the three athletes who will run to bring Sri Lanka glory.

S. Prithika Ampegama  will compete in the women’s 800m event on 30 July while Sureka Gammeddage competing in women’s 100m dash on the same day. Women’s 800m event will get underway at 9 a.m. local time (9:30 p.m. Sri Lanka time) and women’s 100m event will start at 2:15 p.m. local time (1:45 a.m. 30 July Sri Lanka time).

On 1 August, S. Prithika Ampegama will compete in the women’s 1,500 m scheduled to commence at 9 a.m. local time (9:30 p.m. Sri Lanka time).

Sri Lanka is fielding seven athletes in two sports – badminton and athletics – at the games and the contingent will also include three coaches as well as two officials.

Sri Lanka has been performing exceptionally  well at previous Special Olympiads with our athletes  winning 11 Golds, five Silvers and a Bronze medal at the Special Olympics 2011 in Greece

Around 6,500 athletes travelled to Los Angeles from 165 countries to compete at the Special Olympics 2015. The athletes will participate in 25 sports over nine days, ranging from weightlifting to the triathlon.

Competition are also scheduled in bocce, badminton, roller skating, table tennis, team handball (all at the Los Angeles Convention Center); bowling at the Lucky Strike Lanes at L.A. Rhythmic gymnastics; soccer; softball, tennis and volleyball at UCLA; basketball at USC; beach volleyball and open water swimming at Alamitos Beach in Long Beach; and soccer at the Balboa Sports Center in Encino.