Thushen shatters pole vault national junior record 

Nethmika shines with massive personal best feat  

By Reemus Fernando  

Asian Youth Championship medallist Thushen Silva shattered the national junior record in the pole vault as meet records continued to fall on day three of the All-Island Schools Games Athletics Championship at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Wednesday.

The Maris Stella College Negombo jumper erased the meet record, national youth record and the national junior record as he cleared 4.90 metres to cement his place as one of the leading pole vaulters of his age category in Asia.

Thushen, who won the silver medal at this year’s Asian Youth Championships, shattered A. Puvitharan’s 2019 national junior record of 4.82 metres before improving it to 4.90 metres.

Thushen’s new personal best mark is the sixth best performance by an Asian in his age category this year according to World Athletics statistics.

The athlete trained by Sanath Gunaratne became the third athlete to break a national junior record in this meet. Jayavi Ranhinda Alwis of Royal College, Panadura (shot put) and Asian Games medallist Tharushi Karunaratne (400 metres) erased national junior records in their respective events on the first two days.

National junior record holder Nethmika Madushani Herath broke the Under 20 girls’ long jump meet record with a feat of 6.22 metres. The Nannapurawa MV, Bibila athlete’s personal best performance yesterday is better than her national junior record mark (2.09m) but the absence of a wind gauge is likely to deny her the new national junior mark.

The day commenced with Dilni Nethsala Rajapaksha of Lyceum International School, Wattala winning her second title of the meet as she entered record books for the second time. After creating a new meet record in the Under 14 girls’ long jump on Tuesday, Nethsala cleared a height of 1.55 metres to erase the high jump meet record established in 2018.

Lyceum sprinter Dhananjana Fernando who missed the Under 16 girls’ 100 metres title narrowly on Tuesday came up with a 25.44 seconds effort to bag the 200 metres gold with a new record mark.

As expected, emerging thrower Mayon Chirath won the Under 14 boys’ shot put in comprehensive ease. The Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa thrower who has improved junior age category records in each of the events he participated this year cleared a distance of 15.13 metres to improve the meet record by ten centimetres. He reached the All-Island Schools Games after winning the Western Province competition with a new meet record mark of 15.48 metres.

St. Mary’s College, Chilaw athletes made their presence felt with a record-breaking feat of 41.62 seconds in the Under 20 boys’ 4×100 metres, while Dinesh Dilshan Fernando who established a meet record at the Sir John Tarbat Senior Championships (64.92m) last month cleared a distance of 59.03 metres to win the gold in the Under 20 boys’ javelin throw.