by Reemus Feranndo

The men’s steeplechase witnessed a new champion after a long time at the recently conducted 98th National Athletics Championships. Eranda Udaya Bandara Herath who has been playing second fiddle to R.M.S. Pushpakumara for some time now, emerged from the shadow of the many time champion to claim his maiden title as he produced his personal best.

“It is a satisfying feeling to win the title against the champion,” said the 25 year old Herath in an interview with The Island.

“It is satisfying because of the circumstances under which we had to train due to the covid 19 pandemic,” said Herath.

The athlete trained by Sumith Prasanna Vithanage clocked 9:00.22 seconds to win, nearly eight seconds ahead of the reigning champion. His performance has earned him the 17th position in the Asian rankings.

The Army athlete who commenced training for this discipline as a school athlete had not even seen a steeplechase when he was first introduced to the challenging event by Vithanage.

“Vithanage Sir saw me hurdling during a practice session and introduced me to the event. That is how I started,” said Herath.

He first tasted victory in his last year as an Under-20 athlete when he clinched the title at the Junior National Championship in 2014. He produced a sub ten minutes feat in winning and he was also the winner of the Sir John Tarbet Senior Championships that year.

Three years later Herath once again clinched a title when he won the Under-23 steeplechase at the 2017 Junior Nationals.

Since then he had been competing against Pushpakumara for the national title. In 2017 he was placed second in the steeplechase at the Nationals and third at the Army Championship.

Herath joined the Army five years ago and was under the guidance of D.M. Dissanayake for one and half years before he rejoined Vithanage.

Vithanage who has trained him since he was a teenager considers his charge as a strong contender to break the national record which has remained unchanged for more than two decades.

“He has the potential to run under eight minutes and 45 seconds. Our target is to achieve that before long,” said Vithanage referring to GSP Mendis’ record mark created in 1998.

Vithanage had another success at the Nationals when his sprinter Fathima Shafiya Yamick was placed third in the women’s 100 metres and second in the 200 metres and will also bank heavily on Amesha Hettiarachchi to achieve World Under-20 Championship entry standards in the 400 metres hurdles when the junior events are held this year.