Ministry to sponsor foreign wushu coach

By Susil Premalal

ports Ministry, National Sports Council (NSC) and Sri Lanka Wushu Federation (SLWF) have decided to bring down a foreign coach in September.

Targeting the 2022 Asian Games, the SLWF is in talks with several Iranian coaches, said SLWF president Manel Dharmakeerthi.

The 19th Asian Games is scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 10 to 22.
The NSC has identified wushu as one of the sports which can win international medals and under their High Performance Sports Development Programme they had decided to get a foreign coach for wushu.
The SLWF hopes to employ the foreign coach till the end of next year.

The SLWF president is hopeful of winning atleast a bronze and a silver at the Asian Games. 
At the last Asian Games held in Jakarta, Indonesia, Prabath Nuwan Balawardena was placed fourth in the ‘Sanda’ event.

Meanwhile, a 42-member national wushu pool has been formed with a view to taking part in international competitions but stalled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The wushu federation hopes to reduce it to 21 in the future. It will consist of 15 sanda exponents and six taulu fighters.

Wushu won 13 medals at the South Asian Games in December 2019, bagging two gold, five silver and six bronze medals.

• The 19th Asian Games is scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 10 to 22