Two Sri Lankan university students landed at Bandaranaike International Airport at 2.05 a.m. on Monday carrying six medals between them from the World University Weightlifting Championship in Doha, the Daily Mirror reported. They flew home on Qatar Airways flight QR 662.
They are the first Sri Lankans to compete at an international university weightlifting championship. Lifters from 50 countries took part.
Three golds and three bronzes
L. G. A. S. Liyanagedara, a fourth-year student at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and a resident of Polonnaruwa, won three gold medals in the 60kg category — the snatch, the clean and jerk, and the overall total.
T. M. N. S. Dissanayake, a first-year student at Sabaragamuwa University from Galgamuwa, won three bronze medals in the 65kg category, again in the snatch, the clean and jerk and the total.
The six-medal count reflects how the sport awards them. At most international championships a lifter can medal three times in one weight class — separately for the snatch, for the clean and jerk, and for the combined total. Two athletes each topping their podium positions in all three therefore return with six medals between them, from two weight categories.
What the lifts were
The Daily Mirror’s report of the athletes’ return does not give their lifts. An earlier Daily Mirror dispatch from the championship, published on September 10, reported that Liyanagedara took the 60kg title with a 237kg total — 105kg in the snatch and 132kg in the clean and jerk. Spain’s Gomez Martinez was second on 228kg and Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Yen Tang third on 227kg.
In the 65kg class, that report has Iran’s Mohhadov Tehran winning on 289kg and Moldova’s Ion Badanev second on 288kg, with Dissanayake third.
That earlier report also gave the athletes’ first names as Avindu Liyanagedara and Nipun Dissanayake, where Monday’s account uses initials only.
The September 10 dispatch falls outside this site’s 72-hour sourcing window and is therefore cited here as background rather than listed as a source for this article. The figures above are its account, not independently confirmed by Monday’s reporting.
A claim worth separating out
Monday’s Daily Mirror report describes the pair as the first Sri Lankans to participate in an international university weightlifting competition. The September 10 dispatch made a larger claim — that these were the first medals won by Sri Lankan athletes in any sport across more than 60 years of the World University Games.
Those are different statements about different competitions, and the second is much broader. The World University Games and the World University Weightlifting Championship are separate events. No source reviewed for this article substantiates the wider claim, and it is not asserted here.
Not reported
No source names the coaches, the federation or university bodies that sent the two athletes, or who funded the trip. None says when the championship began and ended, how many lifters contested the 60kg and 65kg classes, or whether Sri Lanka entered any other athletes.
None reports whether the pair were met on arrival by officials, whether any recognition is planned, or whether either lifter is in contention for the Asian Games squad. No outlet other than the Daily Mirror has filed on the athletes’ return: searches of Ada Derana, NewsFirst, the Island, Daily FT, Colombo Gazette, Daily News and the government news service returned nothing on it.
