Weightlifter Isuru Kumara wins first medal for Sri Lanka

Commonwealth Games 2022

Dilanka Isuru Kumara won Sri Lanka’s first medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games when he clinched bronze in the men’s 55kgs weight class lifting a total weight of 225kgs in the men’s weightlifting competition on Saturday. Malaysia’s Bin Kasdan Mohamad won the gold with a games record weight of 249kgs and India’s Sanket Mahadev Sargar settled for the silver lifting a weight of 248kgs.

Dilanka’s second lift of 105 kgs in the snatch and the first lift of 120kgs in the clean and jerk won him the bronze ahead of England’s Ben Hickling who had a total weight of 212. The 25-year-old made valiant attempts in his second and third attempts trying to lift 137 and 141 kgs respectively to overpower his Indian counterpart but could not perform them to perfection.

Apart from the gold and silver medallists, Dilanka was the only athlete to make a successful lift of over 100 kgs in the snatch.However Dilanka’s total weight of 225kgs was below his recent performance of 238kgs at the Singapore Weightlifting International where he won bronze to qualify for the Commonwealth Games. Meanwhile in cricket, Alice Capsey’s 44 laid the foundations for England to ease home by five wickets against Sri Lanka in the opening match of the Commonwealth Games T20 tournament.

Katherine Brunt set the tone for the Sri Lanka innings after England were made to field first by taking a wicket with the very first ball of the match.Two wickets apiece for fellow seamers Issy Wong (2-11) and Freya Kemp (2-14) helped hasten the demise, with three wickets from spinner Sophie Ecclestone helping restrict Sri Lanka to 106 for nine in 20 overs.The target never looked like not being in reach for the hosts at Edgbaston, but Sri Lanka made things interesting with spinner Inoka Ranaweera taking three wickets. However, 17-year-old Capsey showed maturity beyond her years to help the home side to victory with just under four overs to spare.

Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu opted to bat first after winning the toss, but her side were one down without a run on the board when Brunt had Vishmi Gunarathne trapped lbw for a golden duck.Wickets then fell at regular intervals during Sri Lanka’s innings and it was Ecclestone who struck next, reacting quickly to have Hasini Perera caught and bowled for 17 in the sixth over, followed by left-armer Kemp claiming a first-ball wicket two overs later by clean-bowling Athapaththu (10).

In reply, England slipped to 63-4 on a tricky surface under the lights, with openers Wyatt (5) and Sophie Dunkley (17) falling to Oshadi Ranasinghe (2-20) followed by Sciver (17) becoming one of Ranaweera’s three victims.But Capsey ensured there would be no danger of England not reaching the target with a brisk 44 from 45 balls before being stumped off Ranaweera (3-29) with victory in sight.