by Reemus Fernando

Sri Lanka Athletics advanced the first stage of the 99th National Athletics Championship by a day to Friday (21) in a bid to provide Olympic hopefuls a final opportunity to earn entry standards following government imposed travel restrictions (from May 21 to 25) jeopardized earlier plans of conducting the event over the weekend.

The track and field governing body will now conclude all nine finals which were earlier scheduled for Saturday and Sunday well before the travel restrictions come to effect at 4.00pm on Friday.

The decision to give priority to Olympic targeted events has irked a segment of the athletics fraternity as the National Championship is likely to be limited to the nine selected disciplines due to the spread of the Covid 19 pandemic.

The Sri Lanka Athletics had earlier planed to conduct the 99th National Championship in four stages over four weekends starting from May 22-23 but reversed their plans to give priority to Olympic targeted events as it anticipated major travel restrictions in the wake of the third wave of Covid 19 pandemic.

With only the Olympic targeted events scheduled for Friday, athletes who had trained for many other disciplines with the hope of taking part in the 99th National Championship are made to wait, without knowing the destiny of their events.

Sri Lanka Athletics said that the event will be held adhering to strict health guidelines stipulated by the Sports Medical Unit of the Ministry of Sports.

The 3000 metres women’s steeplechase, women’s 800 metres, men’s long jump, men’s and women’s javelin throw, men’s and women’s 400 metres and 100 metres are the events scheduled for Friday.

While Sri Lanka Army’s Nilani Ratnayake who competes in the women’s steeplechase is the highest ranked athlete in the women’s category, closet to an Olympic berth, Javelin thrower Sumeda Ranasinghe who represented the country at the Rio Olympics is the highest ranked athlete in the men’s category.

The women’s 800 metres has become the most competitive event with Dilshi Kumarasinghe leading the way with a new Sri Lanka record at the first selection trial held early this year.

Sprinter Yupun Abeykoon and high jumper Ushan Thivanka who are based in Italy and USA respectively are also on the verge of reaching entry standards. They are likely to get competitive events in their bases to get closer to qualifying standards before the deadline.

However for local athletes who are training here, the Friday’s championship is likely to be the final opportunity to earn qualifying standards.