Sports
Waiting for the next Olympic hurdler
Tokyo Olympics – 8 days to go
by Reemus Fernando
The 400 metres hurdles, a discipline in which the country won its first Olympic medal has lost its popularity from being probably the most popular track discipline in 1948 to be the least-interested athletics event among school children today. The lack of facilities and neglect by officials at Divisional and Zonal level is contributing to making the event less attractive and killing the interest of potential athletes who could one day win medals at the international level. From lack of knowledge of coaches to train the technical event to lack of proper facilities (grounds), there could have been many other factors that had contributed to making the track discipline less appealing but there had been a number of athletes who have beaten the odds to win medals at the junior international level, proving that it is not a case of the dearth of talent.
After Duncan White won the country’s first medal at the 1948 London Olympics it took more than half a century for a Sri Lankan male even to earn an Olympic berth in that discipline. It also took more than five decades since Independence for a Sri Lankan male to win a 400 metres hurdles medal outside the South Asian region. In 2000 Harian Ratnayake won the Asian Athletics Championship silver and became the first Sri Lankan since Duncan White to take part in an Olympic 400 metres hurdles. Despite being the first Sri Lankan to run the distance under 50 seconds and winning silver at the Asian Championships, Ratnayake could not find a place in the semi-finals at the Sydney Olympics. Saudi Arabia’s Hadi Al-Somaily, Asia’s fastest that year went on to win a rare silver.
The 400 metres hurdle has been dominated by athletes from English speaking countries at the Olympics. While the competition among the English speaking countries has made the event faster than it had been a half-century ago, the standard of Sri Lanka’s 400 metres hurdles have remained stagnated.
When White finished second behind Leroy Cochran of the USA at the London Olympics he was just 0.07 seconds behind the winner who established a new Olympic record. The then world record was 50.6 seconds. During the last 73 years the world record has been improved by nearly four seconds. On the first of this month, the Norwegian champion Karsten Warholm broke the world record with a feat of 46.70 seconds (the record is subjected to World Athletics ratification).
The country’s national record of 49.44 seconds held by Ratnayake is more than two decades old now. Ratnayake, trained by S.M.G. Bandara and Asian Games medallist (relay) Asoka Jayasundara, trained by Sunil Gunawardena are the only athletes to have clocked sub 50 seconds in that discipline. The country’s top-level athletes today are much slower than the duo who won at the Asian level in their heyday. At World Level more than 90 athletes clocked sub 50 seconds this year. Of them, 19 are from Asia. Sri Lanka’s fastest 400 metres hurdler this year is not even among the best 50 in Asia.
“Most of the current 400 metres hurdlers are athletes who had taken up the event after joining the Army. The motor abilities of an athlete have to be developed from a young age if he is to become a good hurdler. It takes years of training to become a good hurdler. Not many who take up hurdling at school level persevere,” says Asoka Jayasundara, the Asian Games medalist who trains several hurdlers.
The reason that many athletes do not take up 400 metres hurdles at school level could be attributed to the absence of facilities at the grass-root level. The vast majority of the country’s Divisional and Zonal schools athletics competitions are conducted on 200 metres tracks, which makes it impossible to conduct a proper 400 metres hurdles event. What the majority of organizers of Divisional meets do is to promote the few athletes who have applied for the event to the Zonal level. It is at the Divisional level that a young athlete first sees the event live. At a majority of Zonal meets too athletes competing in the 400 metres hurdles are given turns to run on a single set of hurdles. After finishing their turn, they wait around the timekeepers till all complete their turns to see who has produced the fastest time.
To be continued……….
Kolkata Knight Riders have signed Karnataka’s Luvnith Sisodia as a replacement for the injured Matheesha Pathirana ahead of their final round-robin clash of IPL 2026 against Delhi Capitals. Pathirana has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament with a hamstring injury sustained during KKR’s win over Gujarat Titans last weekend.
Pathirana was one of KKR’s marquee signings at the player auction with the Knight Riders forking out INR 18 crore to avail his services. His arrival at the competition was delayed by a left calf injury sustained during Sri Lanka’s Super Eight finish at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, before he was cleared to join the team mid-April.
Having warmed the benches, Pathirana finally got into the XII against GT but bowled only 1.2 overs before going off the field with evident discomfort in his left hamstring.
Sisodia, a left-handed wicket-keeper batter who has played 15 T20s for Karnataka, is yet to play an IPL game. He has been part of Royal Challengers Bengaluru and KKR in the past, having been signed by the latter at the 2025 mega auction. His addition bolsters the team’s wicket-keeping stocks after Angkrish Raghuvanshi was ruled out with a concussion and a finger fracture.
KKR will stay in the hunt for the playoffs if Rajasthan Royals lose to Mumbai Indians. They must however beat Delhi Capitals by a huge margin in order to then pip Punjab Kings to the Eliminator. (Cricbuzz)
National Seminary Philosophate emerged champions of the Oblate Heroes Basketball Tournament after producing an outstanding performance to defeat National Seminary Theologate in the final played at the Oblate Scholasticate Basketball Court on Sunday, May 17.
The champions and runners-up booked their places in the final after overcoming their respective opponents in the knockout stage of the tournament.
The Oblate Heroes Basketball Tournament, organized in memory of Rev. Fr. Fobes OMI, featured four teams representing Oblate Scholasticate, National Seminary Theologate, National Seminary Philosophate and CRS (Clerics Regular of Somasca).
Held at the Oblate Scholasticate Basketball Court, the tournament brought together seminarians and clergy in a spirit of sportsmanship and fellowship, with National Seminary Philosophate eventually emerging victorious to claim the championship title.
It was a must-win game, and they were in early trouble, but Jofra Archer pulled off one of the IPL’s great all-round performances to seal Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) passage into the playoffs with a 30-run win over Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium.
RR will now face Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Eliminator on May 27 in New Chandigarh. The IPL’s last league game, between Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals in Kolkata, is now a dead-rubber.
Sent in to bat on a somewhat slow pitch in an afternoon game, RR lost both their rampaging openers early, and struggled for momentum through the early middle overs with hard lengths and pace-off deliveries proving difficult to hit. Then RR, despite having Shubham Dubey and their designated Impact Player Ravindra Jadeja padded up, promoted Archer to No. 7, and he hit three sixes in a 15-ball 32 that shifted the game’s momentum.
That innings sparked a late surge that pushed RR’s total beyond 200. Then Archer began its defence spectacularly, taking two new-ball wickets with high pace and movement. And just when Hardik Pandya seemed to threaten a late heist and deny RR their playoffs spot, Archer came back for his final over and removed him with the perfect hard-length delivery. He finished with figures of 4-0-17-3, and RR wrapped up victory by 30 runs.
That MI were well-prepared for this contest was clear in the first over itself. When Vaibhav Sooryavanshi came on strike, Deepak Chahar stationed a sweeper cover as one of his two deep fielders, and dangled a full ball wide of off stump, asking the boy wonder if he fancied taking on the fielder. Sooryavanshi went after it, and could have got six for it had Will Jacks not pulled off a spectacular diving save to keep him down to a single, but on another day he could have also been out.
As it happened, Sooryavanshi was starved on strike for the next few overs, as Yashasvi Jaiswal hit three sixes before falling for a 17-ball 27, out to Jacks who bowled two overs of match-up offspin to the two left-hand openers for just 10 runs off 10 balls.
When Sooryavanshi finally faced his sixth ball at the start of the fifth over, he tried to hit against Chahar’s over-the-wicket angle, lost his shape for once, and fell to a sliced miscue.
When Riyan Parag fell to AM Ghazanfar off the final ball of the powerplay, caught with great awareness and balance on the edge of the long-on boundary by Tilak Varma, RR were 54 for 3.
Dasun Shanaka ensured RR didn’t spend too long worrying about the wickets they had lost, with a bit of help from ordinary MI bowling. Ghazanfar and Raghu Sharma fed him slot balls that he launched down the ground for six, and Shardul Thakur sent down a short ball down the leg side that he helped over fine leg for another six. Shanaka’s 15-ball 29 was an important innings, coming when Dhruv Jurel endured another slow start. Jurel eventually hit Ghazanfar for two fours and a six in the 12th over before getting yorked by Corbin Bosch in the 13th for 38 off 26 balls.
RR have often underutilised Archer’s batting ability, and now they seemed to be erring in the other direction entirely, sending him in ahead of two recognised batters with 7.1 overs remaining.
But Archer’s right-handedness may have been one reason for this – MI could have sneaked in an over of Jacks against Dubey or Jadeja. The other could have just been his pure ball-striking ability on a slow pitch where MI were looking to bowl into the pitch as much as possible. Archer’s height, stable base, and baseball-style swing were instrumental in his being able to hit three sixes off that kind of delivery, all either pulled or flat-batted down the ground.
Thakur eventually dismissed him with a hard-length ball that climbed high enough to force a miscue, but by then Archer had given RR serious momentum. Jadeja and Nandre Burger took the baton from him and collected 30 off the last two overs. RR scored 73 off their last five.
Archer’s new-ball wickets came from dissimilar deliveries that did similar things. To Rohit Sharma, he bowled what seemed an attempted inswinger that pitched and seamed away from the fuller side of a good length. To Naman Dhir he bowled a fast legcutter on the line of the stumps. Both straightened after angling into the batter. Rohit nicked off while attempting to work the ball leg side, and Dhir was bowled swiping across the line.
When Burger got one to nip into Ryan Rickelton and induce him to miscue a catch to midwicket off the inside half of his bat, MI were 24 for 3. That became 38 for 4 when Brijesh Sharma sneaked an unplayable, in-ducking shooter through Tilak Varma in the final over of the powerplay. RR seemed to have a foot in the playoffs.
Suryakumar Yadav began his innings with a trademark scoop to the fine-leg boundary. It was the eighth time he had hit his first ball to the boundary in IPL 2026. As long as he was in, MI still had a chance, and even if he wasn’t demonstrating the range of his peak version, he still played a breathtaking shot from time to time, such as when he punched Jadeja inside-out for a flat six over the covers.
He put on 63 with Jacks for the fourth wicket before Yash Raj Punja ended the partnership in the 12th over with a bravely flighted wide legbreak right after getting hit for six. RR may have wondered if the wicket of Jacks had been counter-productive, because Pandya walked in and began to smoke the ball to all parts. He hit Punja for two sixes in his first over in the crease, then pulled Shanaka for two fours in the 13th. By the end of that over, he was batting on 25 off seven balls and MI needed 75 off 42.
The equation had come down to 59 off 30 when Archer came back for his final over. He struck with his fourth ball, with a delivery not dissimilar to the one that had dismissed him. Hard length, into the pitch, climbing awkwardly towards Pandya’s back shoulder. The attempted flat-bat hit ended up as a simple catch to long-on, and RR could breathe again.
Victory swiftly became a formality thereafter, with Bosch failing to nail a slog-sweep off Punja in the 17th over and Suryakumar – who scored just 10 off 10 after reaching his fifty in 32 balls – toe-ending an attempted pull back to Burger for a return catch in the 18th.
Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 205 for 8 in 20 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 27, Dhruv Jurel 38, Riyan Parag 14, Dasun Shanaka 29, Donovan Fereirra 18, Jofra Archer 32, Ravindra Jadeja 19*, Nandre Burger 10*; Shardul Thakur 2-41, Deepak Chahar 2-43, Will Jacks 1-12, AM Ghazanfar 1-45, Corbin Bosch 1-38) beat Mumbai Indians 175 for 9 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 12, Suryakumar Yadav 60, Will Jacks 33, Hardik Pandya 34, Shardul Thakur 10*; Jofra Archer 3-17, Brijesh Sharma 2-26, Nandre Burger 2-43, Yash Raj Punja 2-44) by 30 runs
[Cricinfo]
Showers will occur at times in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Galle, Matara, Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts
No PC polls this year, says Tilvin
Weather conditions worsen, displacing 31,000 people
Dickoya double murder suspect arrested
Police probe underway to ascertain links between criminals deported from UAE and local politicians
Sri Lankans among those affected by new Green Card policy
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
Features5 days agoOctopus, Leech, and Snake: How Sri Lanka’s banks feast while the nation starves
-
Opinion4 days agoMurder of Ehelepola family, Bogambara Wewa and Sightings of Wangediya
-
News4 days agoSteps underway to safeguard Sri Lanka’s maritime heritage
-
Sports5 days agoSri Lanka women’s volleyball team ready for Central Asian challenge
-
Editorial4 days agoA play without its protagonist
-
Midweek Review5 days agoOverall SLPP failures stressed in new Aragalaya narrative
-
Features1 day agoThe NPP’s pivot to the past
-
Opinion3 days agoThe need to reform Buddhist ecclesiastical order