Sri Lanka’s Modern Pentathletes took major honours at the Biathle and Triathle Asian Cup 2019 held recently in Kazakhstan with the team winning one gold, two silver and four bronze medals.
Gayani Dassanayake of the Air Force won the gold medal at individual female Biathle event while two silver medals were won by Asanka Nilaweera (Triathle ) of the Air Force and Sanjeewa Udayanga of the Army (Bilathle) in their events.
Nilaweera also won a bronze medal in the Biathle while Sanjeewa won another bronze at the Triathle events.
The Biathle mixed relay event bronze medal was won by Gayani Dassanayake and Dilanka Rajapakse while in the Triathle mixed relay event a bronze medal was won by Dassanayake and Asanka Nilaweera.
Athletes from several Asian countries including Russia and India contested the meet.
“This was another important step for the Sri Lankan athletes to gain experience and measure their skill levels against athletes in the Asian region,” said Sri Lanka Modern Pentathlon Federation president Nishantha Piyasena.
“After such encouraging results, the Modern Pentathlon Federation of Sri Lanka is now confident to move ahead with the development of the sport in Sri Lanka at a faster pace. We are hoping to introduce the fourth discipline of the sport which is Fencing and participate in the upcoming Triathlon.” added Piyasena
Sri Lanka also produced good results at the Modern Pentathlon Laser Run championship. as Asanka Nilaweera finished seventh and Suresh Kelum ended tenth in the world meet.