Athula Wijewickrema weightlifter par excellence
Upananda Jayasundera Kandy Sports Special Corr
Athula Wijewickrema, an old boy of Kingswood College, Kandy took up
Weightlifting at the age of 12 years in 1980 under his uncle S A
Wijewickrema who revived this Sports in 1962 after 10 long years at the
YMCA Kandy. At the start after several years of training Athula won the
Junior National Championship with by establishing several records. He
represented Sri Lanka at Junior World Championships in 1984 in United
Kingdom.
He graduated to the Senior Category and won Nationals which the
continued to win for 16 long years establishing over 30 Sri Lanka
Records and he was adjudged the Best Lifter five times. This is indeed
a rare achievement.
|
Athula Wijewickrema |
The following are the events Athula represented as a lifter, Coach
and Manager:
As a Lifter Junior World
Championship in UK 1984, Asian Championship in China 1988, Moscow
Friendship Games in Moscow 1988, Silver Dragon World Cup Meet in UK
1989, Silver Dragon World Cup Meet in UK 1991.
As a Coach Asian
Inter-city meet in Thailand 2002, SAF Games in Pakistan 2004, SAF
Games in Colombo 2006, Namju Cup in Iran 2009, Commonwealth
Championship in Samoa 2006, Commonwealth Championship in Malaysia
2009, Commonwealth Championship in South Africa 2011, SAF Games in
Nepal 2012.
Athula is a Grade 1 Referee and local in Sri Lanka and an
international referee.
Athula followed coaching course under Bulgarian coaches in 1981, 1988
and 2002 under a Hungarian coach in 1989 under a Russian coach in 1986
under the Wales National Coach in 1992 and under a Pakistan Coach in
1993 Athula has produced over 2,000 weightlifters and most of them have
won National and International medals which includes S. Wijesooriya
(Gold) Chintana Geethal Vidanage (Gold) 1st Woman International Lifters
Nadinin Gunasekera (Gold) Dhammika Harischandra (Gold). He has also been
the Strength and Conditioning instructor at Trinity, Kingswood College,
Kandy (when they won the league) and at St Anthony's Katugastota.
Although Athula has produced so many International Medalists and
being a National Coach he remains a Sports Officer at the Ministry of
Sports. |
