There were many outstanding performances by Sri Lankan athletes at the just concluded South Asian Athletics Championship in Ranchi India. Many consider Shafiya Yamick’s hattrick of golds on top of every other accomplishment. Undoubtedly, it was a remarkable achievement.

‎There were also other feats that went unnoticed as the spotlight fell mainly on multiple medal winners. Dasuni Kaushalya’s gold winning feat in the women’s 400 metres hurdles was one such.

‎More than the gold, it is the outstanding personal best of 58.66 seconds that delights analysts. It is an average performance compared to top world performances of the likes of Famke Bol or Sydney Mclaughen but looking back at the little progress the discipline has made during the past decade, Kaushalya merits accolades for a job well done.

‎Except Olympian Christine Merrill and former champion Madushani Kaushalya, ‎no other Sri Lankan athlete had run that fast over the ten hurdles in history.

‎As highlighted in these columns in the run up to the championship, Kaushalya was slowly establishing herself as an emerging contender to challenge the US based hurdler Christine Merrill’s national record one day.

‎The Sri Lanka Air Force athlete and her coach Asanka Rathnayake had to beat many odds to prove this fact. And they are the happiest of all now as their hard work paid off in Ranchi.

‎Rathnayake belives that his charge could be trained to achieve sub 58 or 57 seconds within a year provided that she gets fast tracks to train.

‎”I believe that she could be trained to clock 57.5 or 57.3 or probably sub 57 if she could train on fast tracks,” Rathnayake told ‘The Island’ after attending a felicitation ceremony organised by Kaushalya’s school St. Andrew’s Balika, Nawalapitiya and the Urban Council of Nawalapitiya.

‎”This is a technical event. You need to train and compete on fast synthetic tracks to produce fast feats,” said Rathnayake.

‎As the table displays all fast performances by national record holder Christine Merrill were achieved on venues in the US or elsewhere. Even former champion Madushani had achieved her best feat overseas.

‎”I firmly believe that she could feature in an Asian Games final at least if she could train on proper tracks,” said Rathnayake.

‎The coach and athlete have done their part now it is incumbent upon authorities to do the rest.

‎‎

Dasuni Kaushalya with her medal.

Best Performances of Woman’s 400m hurdles by year from 2008

2008 Christine Merrill LA USA 59.62

2009 Christine Merrill San Angelo USA 58.59

2010 Christine Merrill USA 58.04

2011 Christine Merrill Kobe July 56.83

2012 Christine Merrill London Aug 57.15

2013 Christine Merrill USA VA June 56.45

2014 Christine Merrill US 58.25

2015 Christine Merrill Tex US 58.36

2016 Kaushalya Madushani Guwahati 59.87

2017 DGND Wickramasinghe 60.33

2018 Kaushalya Madushani 59.68

2019 Kaushalya Madushani 58.16

2020 GAS Dulani 62.90

2021 Kaushalya Madushani 59.47

2022 Kaushalya Madushani 58.73

2022 Dasuni Kaushalya 62.95

2023 Dasuni Kaushalya 60.98

2024 Dasuni Kaushalya 59.53

2025 Dasuni Kaushalya 59.15

2025 Dasuni Kauahalya 58.66

by Reemus Fernando