The Sri Lanka Para Athletic Association has selected eight athletes who will participate at the Paralympics to be held in Paris, France later this month.
The athletes were picked after trials were held on July 23 and officials said the best have been selected.
An official said the athletes are also very good medal prospects who will be determined to shine in their respective events.
In the absence of Dinesh Priyantha Herath who won a gold medal in the javelin throw with world record, Sri Lanka will rely heavily on Samitha Dulan to win a medal.
Dulan has won a bronze medal at the World Para Athletic Championship held in Paris last year. He threw a distance of 64.06 metres in the final.
Dulan has also set a new World Record at the National Para Athletic Championship F44 Javelin Throw finals. He set the world record with a throw of 66.60m in the event held at the Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo.
Dulan was also the second Sri Lankan athlete to win a bronze medal at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Nuwan Indika is another athlete who is expected to win a medal at the Paralympics this time. He will be participating in the F44 category 100m event.
Indika has bagged a gold medal in the 100m event at the Asian Para Games held in 2022 in China. He returned a time of 11.63 seconds to win the gold.
Athlete Pradeep Somasiri has also displayed his talent by winning a gold medal at the Asian Para Games held in 2022. He ran in the T46 category and won the gold in the 1500m event with a Games record. This goes to prove that he is also a potential medal winner at the Paralympics. He displayed his intention when he participated at the trials to be selected into the team.
Sri Lankan war veteran Suresh Dharmasena has achieved direct qualification for the Paralympics as the only wheelchair tennis player from the island to compete in Paris this year.
Dharmasena, ranked 34th in the world, was announced by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) as having qualified directly. The Paralympic organisers allow the top 40 wheelchair players to compete in the Men’s singles event.
