The oldest Olympian living in Sri Lanka, DIG Sumith Liyanage will be among a host of distinguished sportsmen and sportswomen who will be felicitated at a ceremony to be held at the Duncan White Auditorium of the Ministry of Sports in Colombo, today (1).
Altogether, a total of 47 Olympians living in Sri Lanka are set to be felicitated at this ceremony which will be held under the patronage of Sports Minister, Dullas Alahapperuma.
In addition, all Sri Lankan Olympians will be presented with an insurance scheme through the courtesy of Alliance Insurance.
Liyanage who turned 84 on June 6, represented the country in boxing at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games and participated in the featherweight class event.
After participating in the 1960 Olympic Games he was nominated for the Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand in 1962.
Liyanage also won Gold Medals having participated in international events held in India and Pakistan in 1963.
During the period from 1955 to 1968, he won the National Boxing Championships while knocking out his opponents often in the very first round.
He won the National Championships in the bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight classes. He was also honoured as the Sports Star of the Year in 1960.
After having retired from the ring in 1968, Liyanage took to rifle shooting and he displayed excellence in this field by recording several victories.
He became the most acclaimed marksman and under his leadership the Sri Lanka Police Team won the President’s Challenge Cup at the Defence Services Shooting Championships on several occasions.
In addition, he was placed eighth at the World Shooting Championships held in Denmark in 1968 while competing in the pistol shooting category.
Some of the other veteran Olympians who would be felicitated are Wickremasinghe Wimaladasa (Munich, 1972), A. Premachandra (Moscow, 1980) and Wimalasena Perera (Mexico, 1968).
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