Weightlifters looking for funds

S.M. Jiffrey ABDEEN Kandy Sports correspondent

Sri Lanka may miss the chance of taking part in the Commonwealth Women's Weightlifting championship to be held in Penang, Malaysia as two women weightlifters selected by the Sri Lanka Weightlifting Federation from Kandy YMCA will not be able to make the trip as they had been requested to finance their trip which they are unable to do so.

The two women weightlifters concerned are current national champion Nadini Gunasekera who is ranked 10th in the world and only last week won her event at the National Sports Festival and was also adjudged the best lifter.

This is not the first time that this talented weightlifter has missed the boat to international events for want of funds. She is from a poor family and works at Kandy YMCA to continue her weightlifting. Her achievements in the field of weightlifting for women is unparalleled as she had won the gold medal for her class from the year 2002 upto 2008 - seven years in a row. She was also adjudged best lifter in 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

She started her weightlifting career in 1999 competing in the 69 kilogramme body weight class and since then through dieting has slimmed down to 48 kilograms where her chances are really bright to win a medal at international competition. She is also the class record holder in the 69Kg, 63Kg, 58Kg, 63Kg, and 48Kg, body weights. At the Commonwealth Games held in 2006 at higher weight she was placed seventh, where she lifted a total of 164 Kg, and she is targeting 190Kgs, at present. She is an old girl of St. Joseph's Balika Vidyalaya, Kegalle.

The other lifter selected Dhammika Harischandra also of Kandy YMCA. An old girl of Little Hurikaduwa Balika Vidyalaya in Menikhinna, her talents were spotted by two former National Weightlifting coaches S.A. Wijewickrama and Athula Wijewickrema and encouraged her to take to weightlifting seriously. But she did not even have the bus fare to make the daily trek from Menikhinna to Kandy YMCA and back. She was unemployed. Kandy YMCA offered her employment so that she may continue her weightlifting without allowing her to fall by the wayside. It was a magnanimous gesture by this institution.

Dhammika Harischandra took to weightlifting in 2003 and was a winner in the Junior National Championship 2004 and 2005. She won her class in the Senior National Championship in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

A high point of her career was when she won her class at the All Pakistan Railway weightlifting championship held in Pakistan in 2004.

It will be a travesty of justice if these two talented weightlifters are denied of representing the motherland for want of funds. They are so poor, they cannot even dream of financing the trip all themselves.

The Kandy YMCA which is a social organisation does not have the funds to assist them. What they earn is just enough to meet their overheads. Under this circumstances, these two weightlifters have been requested to find a sum of Rs. 87,480 each by the Sri Lanka Weightlifting Federation, if they are to make the trip to Malaysia to represent their country and bring glory.

What is most surprising is that they have been requested to make payment for the doping test which is Rs. 5,800. The other expenses include air fare from Colombo Penang and back Rs. 26,000 and Accommodation in Penang for 8 days at 60 US dollars per day for 8 days which is Rs. 55,680 at the prevailing exchange rates.

These two talented weightlifters are certain to miss their trip unless some sympathetic donor comes forward to assist them and their weightlifting coach Athula Wijewickrama to make it to the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships 2009.