Dinesh Priyantha creates record in Javelin Throw

Paralympic bronze and World Para Championship silver medalist Dinesh Priyantha Herath created a new Games Record of 61.84 meters in the F46 Javelin Throw event as the Asian Para Games continued in Jakarta Indonesia yesterday.

In a remarkable competition, Dinesh Herath defeated World Record holder D. Devendra who could only reached 59.17 meters placing fourth. India’s Gurjar Sundar Singh (61.33m) and S. Rinku (60.92m) won the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Sri Lanka Para team captain Dinesh Priyantha said: “Myself and my coach Pradeep Nishantha have worked hard and finally our efforts paid off with bringing honors to my motherland and it’s a huge victory for us to win in a sport which was dominated by the Indians,” Herath further said.

“We have been doing continues training since 2017 after victory in the World Para Games. Our main aim is to win the gold in the Olympics” he said.

Meanwhile Palitha Bandara won the silver in the F42/61/63 shot put event recording his personnel best performances marking 13.21 meters. Iran Mohammadian Sajad become the gold medalist when he threw 15.27 meters, establishing a new Asian record. Rikhsimov Mukhammad from Uzbekistan secured the bronze medal with 13.12 meters throw.

In the Men’s 400M T45/46/47 event three Sri Lankans qualified to the finals namely Madurange Subasingh (50.16secs), Pradeep Somasiri (50.24secs) and Malshan Jayalath (52.26secs). But they ended up as fourth, sixth and eighth respectively. Wang Hao from China (48.64 secs), Pradana Nur Ferry (49.86 secs) from Indonesia and Snadeep Singh from India (50.07secs) became gold, silver and bronze medalists respectively.

The much expected athlete Amara Indumathi had to be satisfied with fourth place recording 01:02.32 seconds in the women’s 400M T45/46/47 while LI LU from China (58.39 secs) and Behera Jayanti from India (59.71 secs) became gold and silver medalists. Shigemoto Sae from Japan won the bronze with 59.77 seconds timing.

Mahmoud Zohud, only

Palestine athlete

Palestine’s Mahmoud Zohud, who competed in the shot put F55 class, faced tough competition. Although he didn’t take home a medal for Palestine, the athlete from Gaza said he was happy to be able to take part in this year’s Games.

“I’m very happy to be able to compete here because I got the support of all people in the field, especially Indonesians. I’m very grateful as they made me even more enthusiastic during the match,” said Zohud.