Hard work helped win gold- Thilak

Chris Dhambarage

WUSHU: Twenty five year old Thilak Lakshman Hettiarachchi from Veyangoda put up a marvellous performance to win a gold medal in Wushu events at the recently concluded 10th South Asian Games in Colombo.

Hettiarachchi achieved his success while competing in the Sansu event under 56 kgs weight class competition. He defeated his Pakistani opponent in the grand final after having beaten an Afghanistan opponent in the semifinal.

Hettiarachchi was educated at Bandaranayake National School Veyangoda and excelled in football, cricket, wrestling and volleyball. But it was during the latter stages that he made his mark in the Wushu competitions where he was a member of the Scientific Wushu Research Centre in Veyangoda.

He first exploited the art of Wushu under the guidance of Sugath Pathirana and later improved his technique under the guidance of national coach Leel Dharmapriya in Polgasowita.

Hettiarachchi started competing in the Sansu Wushu events in 2002 and experienced mixed fortunes while participating in the national championships. He made steady progress and soon made it to the Sri Lanka pool in 2004 after some outstanding contributions in the national meet and at the South Asian Games trials.

Hettiarachchi was more than satisfied to be selected for the South Asian Games Wushu squad and his main ambition was to win a medal in his weight class. But he went beyond that and he performed the near impossible by knocking out some of the more fancied opponents on his way to the gold medal.

He of course had a good preparation before the South Asian Games and was able to follow a two and a half month training program in China successfully through the Interim Committee of the Sri Lanka Wushu Association and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

Hettiarachchi felt that this training programme was of great importance which helped him to build up confidence and endurance and also improved his techniques and tactics. But more than that he was determined to make an impact after making lot of sacrifices to reach his goal.

Hettiarachchi is presently unemployed and is the eldest in a family of two. Their main source of income comes through their father Lionel Hettiarachchi who is involved in a self employment venture in the Veyangoda area.

His mother Irene is also unemployed and Thilak Hettiarachchi said that this daily income is insufficient to meet their daily expenditure. He had failed on several occasions in his attempt to find suitable employment and requested the relevant authorities to assist him in this regard.

Hettiarachchi is even unable to find his daily expenditure for his travelling where he has to travel to Homagama for his weekly training programme at the Dolahena Junior School.

Despite all the challenges he is up against it Hettiarachchi thanked the Secretary of the Interim Committee of the Sri Lanka Wushu Association Manel Dharmakeerhti, president T. B. Ekanayake and the rest of the officials and all his relatives and friends.