{"id":53384,"date":"2012-09-08T21:59:41","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T21:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=53384"},"modified":"2012-09-10T15:05:25","modified_gmt":"2012-09-10T15:05:25","slug":"paralympic-lal-lost-his-bid-the-only-equipment-i-had-for-training-is-my-walking-stick-he-told-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/paralympic-lal-lost-his-bid-the-only-equipment-i-had-for-training-is-my-walking-stick-he-told-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Paralympic: Lal Lost His Bid &#8211; &#8216;The Only Equipment I Had For Training Is My Walking Stick&#8217; He Told BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Colombo Telegraph<\/span> <\/a>&#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the London 2012 Paralympic Games, men&#8217;s high jump F- 46 bet \u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.london2012.com\/paralympics\/athletics\/event\/men-high-jump-f46\/index.html\">Lal Pushpakumara \u00a0has\u00a0lost\u00a0<\/a><\/span>his bid for a\u00a0paralympic medal. \u00a0Sri Lanka\u00a0team&#8217;s captain PA\u00a0Lal Pushpakumara eighth among nine competitors as he registered 1.8 meters in the straight final event.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The only equipment I have for training is my walking stick\u201d he told <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sinhala\/multimedia\/2012\/09\/120902_paralympic_team.shtml\">BBC on 29 August 2012<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/paralympic-lal-lost-his-bid-the-only-equipment-i-had-for-training-is-my-walking-stick-he-told-bbc\/lal_pushpakumara_\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-53393\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-53393\" title=\"lal_pushpakumara_\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/lal_pushpakumara_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"304\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/lal_pushpakumara_.jpg 304w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/lal_pushpakumara_-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\" \/><\/a>Lal Pushpakumara who represents \u00a0the <a title=\"Gajaba Regiment\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gajaba_Regiment\">Gajaba Regiment<\/a>\u00a0of <a title=\"Sri Lanka Army\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sri_Lanka_Army\">Sri Lanka Army<\/a>\u00a0 lost his left leg after he stepped on a land mine planted by Tamil Tiger rebels in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>He has served in the army sports unit ever since and is the world&#8217;s number four ranked high jumper in the F44 category, one of the groupings used at the Paralympics to organise events according to competitors&#8217; levels and types of disability.<\/p>\n<p>Lal Pushpakumara first competed in the Beijing 2008 Games and, though he is determined to win a medal in London, he says he does not have proper facilities, equipment or funding in place, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-19370738\">BBC reported<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t ask for special facilities; what we are asking for is proper equipment to train for major sports events,&#8221; he told BBC.<\/p>\n<p>His is a common story even for many non-disabled sports men and women inSri Lanka, except for cricket, the most popular sport in the island nation.<\/p>\n<p>Related posts;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/london-2012-paralympic-pradeep-sanjaya-won-sri-lankas-first-medal\/\">London 2012 Paralympic: Pradeep Sanjaya Won Sri Lanka\u2019s First Medal<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/paralympic-lal-lost-his-bid-the-only-equipment-i-had-for-training-is-my-walking-stick-he-told-bbc\/lal-pushpakumara\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-53388\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-53388\" title=\"Lal Pushpakumara\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Lal-Pushpakumara.bmp\" alt=\"\" width=\"596\" height=\"653\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Q7URD5GE8fk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":53393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[4501,4503,4500,4499,4502],"class_list":["post-53384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","tag-london-2012-paralympic-games","tag-london-2012-paralympic-games-sri-lanka-medals","tag-london-2012-paralympic-lal-pushpakumara","tag-london-2012-paralympic-sri-lanka","tag-mens-high-jump-f-46-lal-pushpakumara"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Paralympic: Lal Lost His Bid - &#039;The Only Equipment I Had For Training Is My Walking Stick&#039; He Told BBC - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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