Life becomes progressively graceful when it is balanced in every aspect. Gymnastics too conform to that rule; the sport is more graceful when it is well balanced as well as full of strength, flexibility, and acrobatic moves. Enlightened coalition of artistic, rhythmic and trampoline qualities gives rise to a heart-pounding spectacle at Olympic gymnastics.
Artistic gymnastics is indeed an art where the performer scores according to the difficulty and the execution of the moves, with the ambition of being a champion in the discipline. Nevertheless, an extraordinary Sri Lankan girl who is just 18 years old withstood all these hardships, making her way towards rising as a champion in artistic gymnastics by balancing all those qualities. She is none other than the proficient Milka Gehani.
Elpitiya Badalge Dona Milka Gehani did her best to embellish the country by devoting her life to gymnastics from the very beginning. Having won the Junior national title from age 8-11, she manifested experience in artistic gymnastics at international levels. With her enormous commitment at training six days a week and spending the whole day training during her school holidays, she soon became a number one personality in artistic gymnastics. Furthermore, with the exceptional training under the former national champion turned coach Ranjana Tharanga, she has achieved the highest goals in her life so far.
This proud persona has reached great heights throughout her career. She became the Junior National Champion from 2011 to 2014, and successfully finished 6th at the Junior Commonwealth Games in 2016. She became the National champion again in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, she was placed within the top 8 at the Asian Championship in Indonesia. This achievement paved the way for her to become the first Sri Lankan to accomplish to triumph in that arena. Moreover, Milka Gehani has successfully set an area record by representing Sri Lanka at the Youth Olympic Games, 2018, and hoisted the name of the country around the world.
Milka Gehani, who took the name of our motherland to the topmost level, is now training in Japan under an IOC funded scholarship with the aspiration to add more colours to Sri Lanka via Olympics in 2020. With all the dedications, she is endeavoring to realize her dream of becoming the best artistic Gymnastic player in Tokyo Olympics 2020. MoraSpirit wishes her the very best of luck to reach her dreams and do our motherland proud.
By Deena Baines
Comments