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| Sunday, 19 February 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Lankan woman at Olympics : 'Best lifter' 2004 looking good
You may be assured that I do not mean the sort of mortar and pestle we get these days, which you keep on the pantry cupboards, (where you can crush pepper corns only if you do it one by one). Apparently, no one had ever said my, my, what that girl is thinking, I certainly do not know, when our women carried boxes of harvest on their heads from the paddy field. Alas! you cannot pound rice at the Olympics (because they have grinders now) and Nadini Niroda Gunasekara (30) will participate in the weight lifting competition, but her first stop will be at the Commonwealth Games to be held in Australia this year, at the games village in Melbourne. Nadi is Sri Lanka's first participant to be going overseas for a weight lifting competition for females. Having had studied at St. Joseph's convent, Kegalle, Nadini had a very interesting tale to tell. What influenced you to take up weightlifting? ("coming from a convent and all...." I add as an afterthought). There was an ayya near my home and he was very much into sports. He had a good physique. So I started training at the Kegalle grounds. I used to play basketball, netball, and then I started on aerobics and bodybuilding. In 1999 the athletics coach in school Mr. Bernard Perera said that a bodybuilding coach will come to school, and that was Mr. Sumararatne. He told me that I have the potential for weightlifting, and I have been doing that ever since. Was your family happy with your choice of sport? Well...my father was happy, he gave me a lot of encouragement and I suppose the rest of my family simply fell into line. A girl doing weightlifting was pretty much a new thing in the village, but I suppose they have accepted it now. But I simply smiled and bore everything which came my way. Nadi certainly has reason to smile some more. Having received gold medal after gold medal throughout the years, at national meets, Nadi was awarded the 'Best Lifter' title in 2004. In 2005 Nadi passed the commonwealth qualified standard of 152 kg. with her 158 kg. Currently, training under coach Athula Wijewickrema, Nadi attached to the YMCA, Kandy, as an Assistant Organising Secretary, is focusing on the 2008 Olympics. And this young woman from Ranwala smiles again. The YMCA, Kandy is proud to say that Nadi, being chosen to represent Sri Lanka in the Commonwealth games in the women's weightlifting, coincides with their centenary year celebrations. Those who would like to sponsor Nadi could contact the YMCA, Kandy on0812223529. Dilini Algama |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Isn't it rather ironic that when our women carried pots of water on their
hips to their homes, no one looked on with pursed lips to say, tut, tut,
women musn't lift heavy things? It was the same when our women pounded flour
with mortar and pestle. 
