Kalinga overtakes Dharshana to climb up ‘Road to Paris 24’ Olympic rankings

by Reemus Fernando

Asian Relay gold medallist Kalinga Kumarage has climbed up the ‘Road to Paris 24’ Olympic rankings following back to back competitions in Japan according to the latest rankings published by World Athletics.

Kumarage has overtaken Aruna Dharshana to take the 49th position in the ‘Road to Paris 24’ Olympic ranking. With the top 48 athletes in this ranking being selected for the quadrennial event in Paris, Kumarage is the closest Sri Lankan to book an Olympic berth now.

His 45.57 seconds feat which won him the second place at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo (May) has earned him 1261 points according to the rankings published by World Athletics on Wednesday night.

The rise in the ranking ladder indicates the importance of taking part in top grade World Athletics competitions. When he clocked his seasonal best of 45.35 seconds to finish second behind Aruna Dharshana at the Sri Lanka Army Athletics Championship in March that feat could fetch him only 1166 points. Dharshana’s 45.30 seconds in March was the fastest performance in Asia in the 400 metres this year until Japan’s Kentaro Sato clocked 45.21 on May 19.

Currently Dharshana is ranked 52nd in the ‘Road to Paris 24’ list. He will be aiming to improve his ranking when he takes part in two competitions in China and Taiwan within the next few days.

With the cream of world’s fastest sprinters aiming to earn Olympic berths before the qualification period expires on June 30, world rankings and ‘Road to Paris 24’ Olympic rankings are likely to change constantly within that period.

The hard-working athletes and their coaches have given the athletics fraternity something to look forward to as we draw closer to the Olympics. Their hard work yielded rich devidance when they won medals at the Asian Relays in Thailand early this week. The team inclusive of Kumarage, Dharshana, Pasindu Kodikara and Dinuka Deshan won the gold medal of the men’s 4×400 metres. Dharshan was also part of the silver medal winning mixed relay team.

 The table shows Asia’s top 400 metres sprinters ranked according to their top performances this year.