Samitha Dulan eyes second medal at Paralympics
Source:- dailynews
Sri Lankan para athlete Samitha Dulan is determined to get his second medal at the Paris Paralympic which will commence tomorrow in France.
Samitha Dulan hails from Deniyaya. He pursued his primary and secondary education at the Deniyaya Central College and Rahula College Matara.
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Dulan suffered an impairment in his right leg after a tragic motorbike accident and took up para sports in 2017. This was the turning point of his sports career. Presently he serves as a Warrant officer Sri Lanka Military Police in the Army and officials of the Sri Lanka Army always give encouragement to continue this sport.
Dulan the 33-year-old Javelin Thrower is more confident to take the medal after his best achievement at the recently concluded World Para Athletic Championship held in Kobe, Japan.
Last Paralympic Games held in Tokyo 2021 Samitha Dulan won the bronze with 64.06 m achievement but this time at the world para athletic championships he improved his distance 69.46 m which was his personal best and world record of F-44. He had to compete with both F- 44 and F-64 athletes in the same category. If he compete only in F-44 event he had chance to win a gold medal with New world record but due to two classes Dulan had to be satisfied with silver but it was special having a world record in F-44 category and this was a big boost to me said Samitha Dulan. In fact Samitha Dulan is appointed Sri Lanka eight member team captain and he is having rare honour of flag barrier at the opening ceremony tomorrow.
Actually when Dulan took bronze medal at last Paralympic Games in Tokyo Dinesh Priyantha Herath won the gold medal with world record at Javelin Throw F-46 category. Dinesh Gold medal always inspired me to get e medal at last Pralympic but this time Dinesh Priyantha unfortunately is not in our team as he was forced to conclude his career as para athlete following a reclassification process carried out by the World Para Athletics at the last World Para championship. As a former Paralympic medal as well as most senior player of the team I havea big responsibility get honour to my country. Samitha Dulan’s coach Pradeep Nishantha also with him at the Paralympic Games and as a coach Nishantha also very confident about Dulan’s second medal of the Paralympics. Sri Lanka team left for France on Sunday while Samitha Dulan will compete in the F-44 Javelin Throw event on September 2.
Actually when Samitha Dulan won the silver medal at last World Para athletic championship in Kobe , Japan the weather was a little bit cold. When I do my training I only focus on my event and never think about other issues while the coach always inspired him to go forward.Getting previous medals at International level always big boost to me and Paralympics is the World mega event with leading para athletes.
Sri Lanka already took four medals at Paralympics
At the 2012 Paralympis in London, Sri Lanka won their first Paralympic medal through Pradeep Sanjaya who won the Bronze medal in the men’s 400m at T-46 Category Dinesh Priyantha
Herath was placed third in the men’s javelin throw F46 final to take bronze medal at 2016 Rio Paralympics.
In 2021 Tokyo Paralympics once again Sri Lanka came to the fore while Dinesh Priyantha Herath took first ever gold medal with a world record in F-46 Javelin Throw followed by Samitha Dulan who won bronze medal at F-64 Javelin Throw. In fact Dinesh Priyantha Herath is the only Sri Lankan para athlete to take back to back medals in 2016 and 2021 Paralympics and Samitha Dulan has good chance to create this same achievement this time and the National Paralympic Committee (NPC)has high expectations about skipper Samitha Dulan.
