With their record breaking throws delivered in March, Sumeda Ranasinghe and Rumesh Tharanga will be the selectors’ easiest picks in the Sri Lanka team for the upcoming Asian Athletics Championships.

The bienniale championship will be held from May 27 to 31 in Gumi, South Korea. Unlike at the previous editions Sri Lanka’s javelin throwers are in uncharted territory. The massive early season throws have placed the two Sri Lankan throwers in the second and thrid places in the world’s top list this year behind USA’s Curtis Thompson. In the fourth position in that list is India’s Olympic medallist Niraj Chopra who has a throw of 84.52 as his best effort this year.

Olympian Ranasinghe regained the national record with a throw of 85.78 metres at the trial held on March 9 at Diyagama. That was within a fortnight after Tharanga threw a world leading distance of 85.41 metres in Perth, Australia.

Sri Lanka Athletics is yet to announce the team for the Asian Championship. But the two throwers are almost certain to get the nod as they are in a historic top spot which is difficult to ignore.

In the women’s category too, javelin thrower Dilhani Lekamge is a top contender to book a ticket to Gumi as her best distance of 56.26 metres this year rank within the top 29 in Asia.

The men’s 400 metres had been the country’s most productive medal winning event at the Asian Athletics Championships. Currently, sprinter Aruna Dharshana and Kalinga Kumarage are ranked in the fourth and fifth positions in Asia. Both are yet to clock sub 46 seconds in the one lap discipline. Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba and Ammar Ismail Yahia Ibrahim and Japan’s Fuga Sato who won the silver at the last edition are the only Asians to have run the distance under 46 seconds this year.

Dispite not faring well at the recent Asian Indoors, Sri Lanka will field a 4×400 metres relay team to defend the gold in May. Dharshana and Kalinga are likely to be joined by two junior athletes as two of the gold winning members have produced below par performaces this year.

Sri Lanka Athletics has received a quota for 18 members after country’s outstanding performaces at the last edition in Bangkok. Sri Lanka won eight medals, three golds, two silvers and three bronzes. They were ranked fourth behind Japan, China and India according to the medal tally

by Reemus Fernando

Janashakthi Group continued its commitment to youth and sports by returning as the title sponsor of the Battle of the Golden Blues for the second consecutive year. The much-anticipated Battle of the Golden Blues big match between St. Joseph Vaz College, Wennappuwa, and St. Anthony’s College, Wattala, will take place on April 25 and 26 at the P. Saravanamuttu International Cricket Stadium.

Mumbai Indians (MI) put together a third straight win in IPL 2025 as they outgunned a Chennai Super Kings (CSK) side shorn of hitting power. The lack of batting showed in how they played a highly cagey brand of cricket, only targeting certain pockets and conceding match-ups without protest. It took them three overs to hit a boundary, then they went 27 balls in the middle overs without even attempting one, only to cap it off with no boundary in the 17th and 18th overs, bowled by MI’s best bowlers on the night: Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Santner.

Not only did MI manage a run-rate boost with the win that takes them to eight points in eight matches, they also welcomed Rohit Sharma back to runs. Rohit scored his first fifty this IPL – his previous highest was 26 – they put together their first half-century opening stand this IPL, and Suraykumar Yadav got the better of CSK’s spin threat with his various sweeps.

This match was played on the pitch that produced 430 runs for RCB and MI.  The toss, as usual, was a big advantage at Wankhede. Which should make it important to look for above-par scores, but CSK took the pragmatic route: don’t risk 120 all out looking for 200. Consequently, their openers tested waters for too long, timing shots straight to fielders. When Shaik Rasheed finally hit one in the air, and for a four, CSK had only 16 in three overs.

Rachin Ravindra by now felt he had to target the change bowler without a sighter. He looked to go big down the ground, and edged the first ball by Ashwani Kumar. His replacement at the wicket, CSK’s younger player of all time, the 17-year-old Aush Mhatre injected some life to the innings with flair reminiscent of Dwayne Bravo. It still meant only 48 runs in the powerplay. The unperturbed MI stayed with Deepak Chahar for a fourth straight over, eventually resulting in the legcutter that got Mhatre out for 32 off 15.