Sports
Dilki, Dilni establish new meet records

All Island Schools Games Athletics Championship
By Reemus Fernando
Dilki Nehara of Sri Sumamgala Balika, Panadura and young long jump prodigy Dilni Rajapaksha of Lyceum International Wattala hogged the limelight as they shattered meet records on day one of the All Island Schools Games Athletics Championship at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Friday.
Nehara recorded some outstanding jumps on her way to creating a new meet record and the year’s best feat in her age category triple jump.
The athlete trained by former national champion Nayana Prasad, cleared the meet record mark (12.01m) on all her five successful jumps.
The South Asian Junior Championship medallist had a best performance of 12.44 metres which was supported by a tail wind above the legal limit. Her best legal jump was a 12.36 m effort (official results were not released at the time this story was filed). Her other jumps were measured at 12.17m, 12.24m and 12.01m.
St. Lawrence’s College Colombo athlete Oshini Kodikara too eclipsed the 12 metres barrier thrice (12.00m, 12.09m, 12.13m). The Sir John Tarbat Senior Championship title holder could not reach her previous best recorded early this year and settled for the second place.
In the Under 16 long jump Dilni cleared 5.94 metres to erase the meet record held by Gateway College athlete Sadeepa Henderson (5.66m in 2017).With that she has now taken under her belt the Under 16 girls’ long jump meet records of all major age category championship.