Keshia bags a Gold in Taekwondo

Leslie Fernando reporting from Dhaka, Bangladesh

Fathima Keshia Suhail of Sri Lanka enthraled the partisan crowd with a stunning performance at the National Sports Council Gymnasium when she captured the Gold medal of the Taekwondo Women’s Under 57kg event. Manita Sahi of Nepal in the final on Monday.

Keshia a student in USA who was included in the Taekwondo team after settling a controversial issue with Taekwondo Federation of Sri Lanka and the Sports Ministry created a high standard and won the expected Gold medal. From the very beginning Keshia was in an aggressive mood and never allowed Manita to take control of the bout winning by 4-2 points.

I was confident of winning a Gold for the country and I put the best show in the final. Keshia said at the moment.

Taekwondo remains as her only dream. She is looking forward to continue the trend. Our standard of the sport is quite high and we can match the establish powerhouses with continuous training, said Keshia.

Ravindra Rajapaksa and Gayathri Sandamali also excelled in Taekwondo to win a Silver medal and a Bronze medal respectively.

Ravindra went down fighting to lose to the Indian player by 4-6 points in the over 87kg category men’s final.

Sandamali was beaten 4-1 points by Nepalese player 1-5 in the Under 53kg Women.

Table Tennis

Sri Lanka paddlers won three Bronze medals in the Women’s Doubles, Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles in Table Tennis.

Ishara Madurangi, Tharinda Darshini, Chalitha R. Kariyawasam, Rohan Sirisena, Sajith Priyadarshana, Dinesh Deshapriya were responsible for Bronze medal.

Archery

Dihara Lahiru Prasadini won the first medal - a Bronze, in the Women’s Individual match in Archery held on the 11th day of the Games held at Bangladesh Sports Complex in Savar.

Prasadini with perfect control and accuracy collected 96 points to decide third place winner.

Two Bronze in Wushu

Danushi Thakara and Ravindra Silva collected a Bronze medal each in the Wushu held at BKSP Sylhet.

In the Women’s Taijiquan (TAOLU), Danushi secured the Bronze with a total score of 8.02 points. Ravindra added the second Bronze in the Men’s Nanquan and Nadalou all-round event with a score of 18.01 points.