Ranga to form athletic foundation

Sampath BANDARA

Asian Championships Gold medalist and Olympian Ranga Wimalawansa will form an athletic foundation to support young athletes who are suffering from financial problems. This foundation will be established soon in Colombo.

"I am a young businessman. This foundation will be run by my own money. But everybody who love sports, can join us. It is not essential to enter spots management to develop sports. We will provide sportswear, equipment, shoes, sports supplements and suitable training programs for selected talented young athletes all over the island...'" he says.

Ranga Wimalawansa was born and brought up in Payagala in Kalutara District. He is an old boy of Holly Cross College, Kalutara and St. Peters College Bambalapitiya.

After Ranga sharpened his skills under veteran athletic coach Sunil Gunawrdena, he represented Sri Lanka at Sydney Olympic Games, in 2000, Commonwealth Games, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1998 and lot of major athletic events all over the world.

He has won many international medals in 4 x 400 m event with his team-mates. Sugath Thillekaratna, Rohan Pradeep Kumara, Prasanna Amarasekera, V. Rathnakumara, Manura Lanka Perera and many others.

His international medals include Asian Championship, Fukuoka (1998) bronze medal, Asian Championship Jakarta (2000) gold medal, Asian Championship. Manila (2003) gold medal, Asian Games, Busan (2002), bronze medal and South Asian Games, Islamabad (2004), gold medal.

He hops this foundation would keep the hopes of up an coming young athletes alive.