World Indoor Championship 

Sprinter Chamod Yodasinghe reached the semi-finals of the 60 metres dash with a remarkable sprint performance on day one of the World Indoor Athletics Championship in Nanjing China on Friday.

Competing in heat two the athlete trained by Sanjeewa Weerakkody clocked a blistering time of 6.70 seconds shared by USA’s Coby Hilton and Switzerland’s William Reais. The trio were separated by photofinish with Coby Hilton, William Reais and Yodasinghe given first, second and third places respectively.

In the semi-finals which was worked off in the afternoon, Yodasinghe finished last.

Yodasinghe’s heat performance was ranked 24th among a field of 58 athletes who faced starter’s orders in eight heats.

His impressive achievement was a massive consolation for Sri Lanka after 400 metres specialist Kalinga Kumarage missed his heat due to a technical issue. Secretary of Sri Lanka Athletics said that Kumarage could not collect his accreditation in time to take part in the heat. He was scheduled to compete in the fifth heat which was won by Canada’s Morales Williams (45.85secs). Only two qualified from that heat. While the second placed Jacory Paterson of USA clocked 45.94 seconds others  failed to finish under 47 seconds.

Sri Lanka’s contingent of 12 athletes is the biggest by the country to a World Indoor Athletics Championship. While Yodasinghe, Kumarage and Kaveesha Bandara compete in individual events, others will take part in the men’s and women’s 4×400 metres relay finals.

Former Royal College Colombo hurdler Bandara will compete in the 60 metres hurdles today (Saturday).

The men’s and women’s 4×400 metres relays will take place on Sunday.

In the morning, the championships’ first gold medal was won by Italy’s Andy Diaz Hernandez who soared to a world lead and national record of 17.80m in the men’s triple jump.

That feat moved him to fifth on the world indoor all-time list, the mark is the third-farthest leap in World Indoor Championships history and the farthest since the 17.90m – then a world indoor record – achieved by Teddy Tamgho at the 2010 edition in Doha

Three years after taking gold in Belgrade, Woo Sanghyeok won his second world indoor high jump title. The Korean was the only athlete to go clear at 2.31m, doing so on his first try. Defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Hamish Kerr was second with 2.28m, taking silver on countback ahead of Jamaica’s Raymond Richards.

by Reemus Fernando