- Tharanga primed to end wait
- 54-member contingent approved
Sri Lanka will eye its first Gold medal in over two decades when its 40-member strong athletics contingent heads off to Glasgow, Scotland to compete in the 23rd Commonwealth Games 2026 from 23 July to 2 August.
The previous occasion a Sri Lankan athlete managed to clinch Gold was when weightlifter Chinthana Geethal Vidanage took the top spot on the podium during the Commonwealth Games which took place in Melbourne, Australia in 2006.
To date, Sri Lanka has won 24 medals in the history of these games, including four Gold, nine Silver, and 11 Bronze, with the other Gold medal winners being Barney Henricus (boxing, Sydney 1938), Duncan White (athletics, Auckland 1950), and Pushpamali Ramanayake and Malini Wickramasinghe (target shooting, Victoria 1994).
According to athletics analysts, in-form javelin thrower Rumesh Tharanga, who is currently ranked second in the world in his discipline, is in pole position to put an end to his country’s long-running Gold-medal drought at the Commonwealth Games this time around.
Tharanga, who will captain Sri Lanka, has been in sublime form of late, and his recent medal-winning performances at various overseas meets has seen him blazing a trail for local athletes not witnessed since the halcyon days of former sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe and others of her ilk.
Apart from Tharanga, Sri Lanka will bank on athletes such as Kalinga Kumarage (400 m/mixed relay 4x400 m), Aruna Darshana (mixed relay 4x400 m), Kalhara Indupa Silva (400 m/mixed relay 4x400 m), and Chamod Yodhasinghe (100 m) for medal success among the men.
Among the women athletes, Dilhani Lekamge (javelin) and Nethmika Madushani Herath (triple jump and long jump) are likely to be two of the best bets for possible podium finishes, but the odds will be stacked heavily against them.
Overall, Sri Lanka is slated to field 27 male and 13 female athletes drawn from seven disciplines (athletics, para athletics, judo, artistic gymnastics, boxing, weightlifting, and swimming), while they are to be accompanied by 14 sport-specific officials with Olympian Niluka Karunaratne being the Chef de Mission.
Para athlete Palitha Bandara has been named Sri Lanka’s flagbearer for the opening ceremony, with fellow para athlete Janani Dhananjana chosen as the batonbearer.
The organisers of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games have omitted team sports such as rugby sevens and T20 cricket with the only team sport featured being netball, but Sri Lanka failed to receive recommendation for the games.
Meanwhile, the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) headed by Asanga Seneviratne has approved a 54-member contingent for the games, which is due to start on Thursday (23).
(JK)