Rumesh Tharanga shattered the national record in the men’s javelin throw and earned direct qualifying standards for the World Athletics Championship in his very first throw at the World Athletics Bronze lable meet in Bhubaneswar India on Sunday.

When this edition went to press he had made only one attempt. The former St. Peter’s College athlete cleared 86.50 metres to shatter the record held by Sumeda Ranasinghe(85.78m), who too was scheduled to compete in the same event.

Tharanga became the first Sri Lankan to clear the 86 metres mark in history.

In the other events, Dilhani Lekamge and sprinter Chamod Yodasinghe won silver medals.

Yodasinghe clocked 10.43 seconds to finish second behind Malaysia’s Muhammad Azeem (10.35) to claim silver in the men’s 100 metres which saw multiple disqualifications due to foul starts.

In the women’s javelin throw, Lekamge cleared a distance of 54.96 metres to win silver behind India’s Annu Rani (62.01 m).

Elsewhere, Italy based sprinter Yupun Abeykoon clocked his seasonal best, a blistering 10.17 seconds to win the heat of the men’s 100 metres at the Sestriere International Meeting in Italy.

The Sri Lanka National record holder and the only man to run sub 10 seconds in the 100 metres in the entire South Asia region, Abeykoon beat 2023 European Indoor Champion in 60 metres to second place to win the heat.

He was expected to compete in the final later on the day where a faster performance was expected.

The Commonwealth Games medallist, fighting for a place in the Sri Lanka team for the World Championship in Tokyo next month is in the 145th position in the World Athletics ‘Road to Tokyo 25’ rankings and needs to clock 10.00 seconds if he is to earn direct qualifying standards for the Tokyo event.

The 100 metres will see 48 athletes being selected for the Tokyo World Championships based on performance and rankings.

by Reemus Fernando ✍️