Three Paralympics medal winners Pradeep Sanjaya, Dinesh Priyantha Herath, Samitha Dulan and Para Asian youth medal winner Galina Basnayake will be felicitated as the most outstanding Para athletes at the first ever Para athletes felicitation ceremony conducted by National Paralympic Committee (NPC) on February 24 at Waters Edge Battaramulla .
Pradeep Sanjaya was the 2012 London Paralympic 400m bronze medalist which was the first Sri Lanka paralympic medal while Dinesh Priyantha Herath won Paralympic medals at 2016 Paralympics as well as 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and Dinesh and Samitha Dulan both won Paralympic medals at Tokyo Paralympics. In addition Dinesh Priyantha Herath set up a new Paralympic record at Tokyo Paralympics with gold medal and Samitha Dulan won Tokyo Paralympics bronze
Galina Basnayake the champions swimmer won the gold medal at Asian Youth Para Games in 2023. (400m free style)and after 13 years swimming para swimmer archieved this. Galina was able to get gold and silver medals in these meets .In addition the four best para athletes coaches also will be felicitated with cash awards.Pradeep Nishantha is the coach of Dinesh and Samitha while Janz Dissanayake is Pradeep Sanjaya’s coach . Former SAF gold medalist Julian Bolling is Galina Basnayake’s coach.
There are 29 medal winners during last ten years and they will receive awards at this felicitation ceremony. The Para athletes who excelled at this Para sports have done an excellent job and National Paralympic Committee (NPC) will hold this felicitation ceremony to give them big boost in their career said President of the NPC Colonel Deepal Herath.
I already invited Sports Minister Harin Fernando to take part as chief Guest at this occasion . Our para athletes official sponsor Dialog Axiata PLC Group Director and Group CEO Dr Hans Wijesooriya and MAS Holdings Group Chairman Mahesh Amaleen will be guest of honour and we are very grateful to Dialog and MAS for their support to our para athletes and hope they continue support for this sport..
We are expecting more medals at this year Paralympics in France he said.
Dinesh Priyantha Herath
