Colombo, Feb 15, 12.20PM – Sri Lanka’s para athletes, a team of five members, came back home on Friday with six shiny medals from the 2024 Dubai Grand Prix, Fazza Championship. They grabbed four gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal. The athletes did really well, hitting the 2024 Paris Paralympic qualifying standard too.
During the event, Nuwan Indika and Dinesh Priyantha won three gold medals together. Then, on the last day, Saman Subhasinghe scored another gold in the 400m T47 race, finishing in 51.70 seconds. Even though Subasinghe got the gold, he missed out on his personal best timing of 50.30 seconds because he didn’t face tough competition after the first 200 meters.
Anil Prasanna Jayalath got a silver medal in the 100m T42 event, while Buddhika Indrapala secured a bronze in the same category. What’s great is that all of them met the International Paralympic Committee’s High-Performance standard.
Earlier in the championship, Nuwan Indika won two gold medals in T44 100m and Long Jump, while Dinesh Priyantha took gold in F46 Javelin. Both athletes also met the IPC High-Performance standard.
The President of the National Paralympic Committee, Col Deepal Herath, emphasized that the focus was not just on winning medals but also on improving timing and distance to qualify for the Paralympics in Paris.
Col Herath expressed confidence in Nuwan Indika and Dinesh Priyantha meeting the Paralympic selection criteria. He mentioned that Anil Prasanna Jayalath and Buddhika Indrapala are also in the running, having met the IPC’s High-Performance standard.
However, there’s a bit of uncertainty around Saman Subhasinghe’s selection due to his timing not meeting the IPC’s High-Performance standard, despite winning the gold medal in the 400m T47 event.
Out of the five athletes who participated in the Dubai Grand Prix 2024 Fazza Championship from February 12 to 15, Saman Subhasinghe is the only one whose selection for the Paralympics remains doubtful, according to Col Herath.
