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Making Olympic dream a reality

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After Duncan White won an Olympic medal in 1948 in London, Sri Lanka had to wait for 52 years to end their medal drought. Susanthika Jayasinghe in Sydney in 2000 became the second Sri Lankan to win a medal.

by Rex Clementine

After Duncan White won the nation’s first Olympic medal in London, it took Sri Lanka 52 years to win their second Olympic medal in Sydney. If you believe in law of averages, our next medal should come somewhere in 2052. If you are over the age of 40 now, there is a good chance that you would be dead by the time the nation wins the next medal in Olympics. But then, there’s also something called if there’s a will there’s a way.

Perhaps, you don’t have to wait for as many as 52 years to win an Olympic medal if you can come across a genius like Susanthika. It is a well documented fact that she was a rare talent and she was destined for greatness from the moment her skills were spotted as a teenager. All what you need is someone with immense skill to break all the barriers and she remains an inspiration to millions of Sri Lankans.

But you tend to remember Arjuna’s words. Some players come along once in 50 years; Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan are the examples that he gives. The same is true with Susanthika.

However, some countries seem to be doing it with limited resources. Look at New Zealand. Despite a population of five million, they are among the top ten in the medals tally having already won six golds. Well, they have the sporting infrastructure, one may say. Fine, but what about Philippines, a developing country like us. They have already won two medals including a gold. Well, they have over 100 million population another may say. Then what about Cuba? With a population less than us (11 million), and an economy not so great, they have so far claimed 11 medals including four golds! Fabulous.

What prevents our athletes from reaching greater heights is an interesting question our readers may ask. One of the main issues that sportsmen in our country face is that the games they play are not professional. Except for cricket, all other sportsmen are amateurs. A good majority of them, thanks to their sporting skills find employment in the private sector and then instead of fine tuning their sporting skills, they do 8 – 5 jobs as business establishments are under pressure to perform constantly.

Businessmen who loved sports like Rienzie T. Wijetilleke, Hemaka Amarasuriya and late R. Rajamahendran are a rare breed who wanted their employees to train morning and evening and told them not to turn up for work. They will of course have an axe to grind if their sports stars didn’t perform up to expectations.

This is where the Sports Ministry needs to step in. Usually, the Ministry steps three months prior to a competition requests mercantile establishments to free the athletes to compete in global competitions. But sportsmen and women in other parts of the world are training six hours a day on a daily basis for four years.

Is there any possibility that the Sports Ministry identifies around five sports where there are medal prospects – ideally individual sports – and then offer these athletes annual contracts and ask them to train without worrying about earning a living. Surely, it’s not going to cost them an arm and a leg.

There’s three years for the next Olympics and with expertise coaching, the nation can have some hope of not waiting for half a century to win an Olympic medal. If there’s a will, there’s a way.



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Nilakshika, Harshitha shine as Sri Lanka record rare win over India

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Nilakshika Silva produced arguably the innings of her career so far

Sri Lanka women’s team beat their Indian counterparts for the first time in seven years as Harshitha Samarawickrama and Nilakshika Silva with vital half centuries and the eighth wicket pair of Anushka Sanjeewani and Sugandika Kumari with a valuable partnership excelled for the hosts in the Tri Nation tournament match on Sunday.

Chasing a target of 276 runs to win Sri Lanka were seven wickets down for 238 runs but the eighth wicket pair of Anushka Sanjeewani and Sugandika Kumari kept their cool to reach the target with five balls to spare.

Put to bat, India made 275 for nine on the back of a 48-ball 58 from Richa Ghosh.

In their essay Sri Lanka’s batting clicked together as they recorded their second-highest successful chase. It was also their third win over India in the format.

Vishmi Gunaratne contributed with 33 runs. Dilhari made a quick fire 35. Anushka Sanjeewani and Sugandika Kumari put on an unfinished partnership. Kumari was the more impressive of the two, as she breezed her way to 19 not out off 20 – her highest international score. Sanjeewani made 23 not out off 28, and hit the winning runs.

Chief among the big performers was Silva, who produced arguably the innings of her career so far. She signalled her intentions early – fourth ball, she leapt down the track to Sneh Rana, India’s form bowler, and muscled her over long-on for six. This was only one of three big hits, as she motored her way to a 28-ball 50, hitting five fours as well, targeting the square boundaries either side of the wicket, though she also hit two fours through fine leg. Her best six came off left-arm spinner Shree Charani, whom she ran at and thumped over long-on. No other Sri Lanka batter cleared the rope.

When Silva arrived at the crease at Athapaththu’s dismissal, Sri Lanka needed 124 off 107 deliveries. When she was dismissed, they needed 38 off 44. India still had the opportunity to charge back into the game at this point, but Kumari’s early boundaries kept Sri Lanka surging, and Sanjeewani added heft to that final partnership.

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Dinara wins second consecutive ITF J30 tournament title

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Dinara de Silva receives the winner's trophy from Tournament Derector Chammika de Silva. (Pic by Kamal Wanniarachchi)

Dinara de Silva won the second consecutive ITF Junior Circuit J30 girls’ singles title when she beat India’s Aleena Farid at the week 2 tournament final at the SSC courts on Saturday.

Dinara beat Aleena Farid 6-3, 6-1 in the final.

In the boys’ final Mahit Mekala (India) beat compatriot Pratyush Loganathan 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to win the title.

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IPL 2025: Prabhsimran 91, Arshdeep’s new-ball spell take Punjab Kings towards playoffs

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Arshdeep Singh derailed the LSG chase inside the powerplay [Cricinfo]

Punjab Kings (PBKS) are marching towards a spot in the playoffs, moving up to No. 2 on the table. They dispatched one of their main rivals Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) with a power-packed batting performance, scoring 236 for 5, and winning by 37 runs. Shreyas Iyer actually wanted to bowl at the toss. But he said he was “up for the competition”, and it seemed so was his team.

They hit 34 boundaries in the innings – 16 fours and 18 sixes – en route to their 11th total of 200-plus in the IPL. Only Mumbai Indians have more. Prabhsimran Singh was the architect of this chaos. He attacked nine of his first 15 deliveries, and in that time he could’ve been dismissed for 22 off 11 balls. But Nicholas Pooran put down a skier. When a similar ball came down just seconds later, Prabhsimran played the same shot and found the straight boundary. He’s an intent machine with a very short memory. He made his third fifty on the trot, having come into this season with only four fifty-plus scores in his IPL career.There was a small period when Prabhsimran stalled. He got to 45 off 24 balls. Then made only 8 from 11 balls. but made up for that hitting 38 off his last 13 deliveries.

The batters at the other end matched Prabhsimran’s fire. In fact, every time LSG took a wicket, the new partnership began with a boundary within two deliveries, leaving the visitors with no place to hide. Shreyas once again showed he’s a changed man. Until IPL 2024, he was striking at 125. Since then, he has been striking at 163. That has not come at the cost of his productivity. He averaged 32 before. Now it’s 44.

Shashnak Singh played the perfect cameo, 33* off 15 balls which included a six off Mayank Yadav that legit tried to scale up to one of the Dharamsala mountain tops.

Mayank went for 60 runs in his four overs, the joint-worst figures by an LSG bowler in IPL. Avesh Khan leaked 26 runs in the 19th over, which included three fours and two sixes. Digvesh Rathi went for 40-plus in only one of his first nine matches. In his last two, he has gone for 48 and 46. At a time when they need to be peaking, LSG were floundering. Their best hope was that their top order fired.

Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram and Pooran had made 63% of all their team’s runs coming into this game. Arshdeep Singh knocked two of them out in the third over, and returned for the last man standing. LSG were reduced to 38 for 3, their lowest powerplay score this season. Rishabh Pant fell for 18 off 17 balls, his ninth score below 25 in 11 innings. His dismissal was a spectacle. He swung so hard at the ball that he lost control of the bat, which flew out to midwicket while the catch was taken at deep cover.

There was more than half the innings left to play when ESPNcricinfo’s forecaster suggested that LSG’s chances of winning was down at 0.13%. Guess being 73 for 5 is bad chasing 237. The last specialist batting pair they had  – Ayush Badoni (74 off 40 deliveries) and Abdul Samad – delayed the inevitable by putting on a partnership of 81 in 41 balls.

Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 236 for 5 in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 91, Josh Inglish 30,  Shreyas Iyer 45, Nehal Wadhera 16, Shashnak Singh 33*, Marcus Stoinis 15*;  Akash Singh 2-30, Digvesh Rathi 2-46, Prince Yadav 1-43) beat Lucknow Super Giants 199 for 7 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 13, Rishabh Pant  18, Ayush Badoni 74, David Miller 11, Abdul  Samad 45, Avesh Khan 19*; Arshdeep Singh 3-16, Marco Jansen 1-31, Azmatullah Omarzai 2-33, Yuzvendra Chahal 1-50) by 37 runs

[Cricinfo]

 

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