Pethum Balawardena narrowly misses his first Wushu medal at Asian Games

By Dhammika Ratnaweera reporting from Indonesia

Sri Lankan  Wushu player Pethum Balawardana came to the limelight in the fourth day of the Asian Games when he reached the quarter finals of men’s Wushu Sanda 60 kg  event in Jakartha on Tuesday. It was a superb encounter by both Sri Lankan and Vietnam player Van Nghiem.

Unfortunately after a close fight, Sri Lankan subdued at the end to be beaten by Vietnami player with two points superioro thus missing a chance for Pethum to win a bronze medal of this event. Pethum had the advantage of height but the Vietnam player who used his experience made a good come back with 4 points lead in their final round.

Pethum  and his coach Kapila Sabhapathi were very keen to talk media after the event and said they never expected to give this type of fight against world number two player . “I had to beat Laos  player Latsaphao . But during that fight i had a leg injury. Even with an injury, I was able to give a good fight at the quarter final match.” said a Pethum.

Meanwhile  Sri Lankan Kabaddi team who had a good start at the games came out with disappointing performances on Tuesday (21) in Jakarta Indonesia. Women’s kabaddi team lost badly to India 38-12 in the morning while men’s team went down fighting to a strong outfit from Bangladesh.

Meanwhile swimming brothers Matthew Abeysinghe and Kyle Abeysinghe finished sixth and seventh with the former finishing with 22.88 seconds and 23.36 seconds respectively.

 

The men’s 3×3 basketball team lost to Thailand 10/20 while women’s   3X3 basketball   more fancied China 14/21  to  win the past .