SILVA Sandaradura Lakshini Sara

General
OVERSEAS EXPERIENCE
In 2021 she received a scholarship from the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka and began training in Qatar, which she believes has helped her development. She hopes to gain further experience competing at events in Europe. "The residential programme was vital to me. If I break records with pleasing results, that exposure was one of the reasons. We Sri Lankans are not that privileged compared to track and field athletes from countries outside Asia. Adding to that, our athletes get very little international exposure. These are the biggest disadvantage to athletes here. At Asian level, it's a different level of competition, but the European circuit is a different ball game. From Asia the athlete in you can emerge, but competing in Europe can help you identify the medal winner. It's a good training ground to any athlete, not only on the field but mostly off the field. That's the reason why athletes from the west are stronger physically and mentally at global level. I want to be that, and become the next medal winner at all international events, up to the Olympics." (sundaytimes, 20 Mar 2022; island, 10 Mar 2022; ceylonathletics, 15 Feb 2022; timesonline.lk, 24 Jun 2021)