Chamara, Niluka eliminated from first round

Badminton national champion Niluka Karunaratne and South Asian Games gold medallist Chamara Nuwan Dharmawardena were eliminated from their respective competitions at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Monday.

Karunaratne, who was competing in his third Olympics, was beaten by Nguyen Nhat of Ireland 2-0 (21-16, 21-14). It was the second defeat suffered by Karunaratne in Group ‘F’ after conceding a 2-0 loss at the hands of tenth seed Wang Tzu-Wei of Chinese Taipei on Saturday.

At the time he was selected for Olympics Karunaratne was ranked 99th in the world.

Judoka Chamara who was making his second straight Olympic appearance was eliminated in 29 seconds in the round of 32.

Chamara Dharmawardena was beaten by Houssein Aden-Alexandre of Djibouti within 29 seconds.

Competing in the men’s 73 kg event he was beaten by Houssein Aden-Alexandre of Djibouti who scored an Ippon to advance to the round of 16.

Chamara who was one of the two flag bearers for Sri Lanka at the opening ceremony first represented Sri Lanka at the Rio Olympics in 2016.