Judoka Chamara Nuwan snubs media after first-round defeat

Competing in the judo Men’s 73kg preliminary round meeting at Nippon Budokan today, Houssein showed no mercy in eliminating Sri Lanka’s Chamara Nuwan Dharmawardana with an ippon 10-0.

Though the Lankan print and electronic media waited a longer duration at Nippon Budokan to interview him and especially to know what really went wrong for him, Dharmawardana did not honour the request for a media interview.

It was a disappointing show by the Overall Men’s Captain of the Sri Lankan contingent, who gave a better account of himself at the last Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.

Though a better display was expected from the 2019 South Asian Games Gold Medallist, it was not so as the Djiboutian needed less than half a minute to go for his target in style.

However, the 2019 African Games Bronze Medallist’s joy of beating the Lankan competitor was short-lived as he went down to Georgia’s Lasha Shavdatuashvili in the pre quarter-finals of the 73kg event.