Sports
Amasha smashes Susanthika’s Army record, Roshan dazzles with hurdles feat
57th Army Athletics Championships
by Reemus Fernando
Sprinter Amasha de Silva smashed Olympian Susanthika Jayasinghe’s longstanding Army Athletics Championship 100 metres record and Roshan Dhammika Ranatunga came almost close to breaking his national record in the 110 metres hurdles as they blazed the track on the final day of the Army Athletics Championships at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Friday.
Amasha clocked 11.67 seconds to win the women’s 100 metres final ahead of Susanthika’s niece Medhani Jayamanne in the afternoon. She broke Susanthika’s 1994 hand-timed record of 11.6 seconds. With yesterday’s feat, Amasha has now taken both the 100 and 200 metres records of the Army Championships under her belt. The athlete trained by Sanjeewa Weerakkody has a personal best of 10.55 seconds from 2020 and is the fourth fastest athlete in history in the 100 metres behind Susanthika, Damayanthi Dharsha and Rumeshika Ratnayake.
In the morning, Roshan Dhammika produced the second-fastest legal time ever run by a Sri Lankan in the men’s 110 metres hurdles.
Dhammika, who broke Olympian Mahesh Perera’s 24-year-old 110 metres hurdles record at the National Championships four weeks ago, clocked 13.91 seconds to win the gold in the 110 metres hurdles final. The SLEME athlete’s effort had a minus 1.9 wind reading as he finished the event just two milliseconds slower than his national record.
His coach Thiron Gamage was confident that Dhammika would improve his national record once again and he almost achieved the target running against the wind. “He missed the record but with this feat, Dhammika has proved beyond doubt that his national record was not a fluke,” Gamage told The Island after the new meet record performance.
How much he has got to offer was evident from the time Dhammika ran a relaxed heat in the morning. Despite breaking the second hurdle he was still leading when he cleared the last hurdle but slowed down to finish third in the heat. In the final his only blemish was breaking the last hurdle. Still, he was metres ahead of the rest. With his third sub 14 seconds run (13.97 secs and 13.89 secs at the Nationals) the former Kularatne Central, Godakawela athlete has become the only Sri Lankan to run the distance under that mark legally.
All three athletes who had previously run the distance under 14 seconds, namely Chaminda Fonseka, Supun Viraj Randeniya and Mahesh Perera had wind readings above the legal limit.
Those were not the only impressive track performances as Pabasara Niku produced his personal best with a 46.36 seconds to finish first in the men’s 400 metres final which was minus national champion Kalinga Kumarage and the other leading contender Aruna Dharshana. Dharshana pulled out from the competition due to injury in the semi-finals on Thursday. Harsha Karunaratne who won the 800 metres, finished second behind Niku in a time of 46.83 seconds. In the corresponding women’s event, Nadeesha Ramanayake bagged the gold medal. She clocked 54.54 seconds.
There were two other individual meet record performances from Sarangi Silva in the women’s long jump and Samith Fernando in the men’s shot put.
Sarangi cleared a distance of 6.14 metres to win the long jump. Fernando cleared 16.60 metres to create his record.
Nilani Ratnayake, whose steeplechase feat was adjudged the most outstanding performance in the female category won her third individual gold medal when she clocked 4:25.20 seconds to finish the 1,500 metres. While Samantha Pushpakumara (RMS) won the men’s 10,000 metres in a time of 31:12.28 seconds, H.A.M. Dilrukshi was the winner in the women’s discus throw. Men’s 100 metres winner Himasha Eshan (10.29 secs), who was involved in many victories for the Artillery regiment- the winners of the championship- won the award for the most outstanding performance in the men’s category.
Sharjah, 2pm local time
Sri Lanka broke a 12 match losing streak against New Zealand by posting their first-ever T20I win against the opponents last year. In the third T20I in Colombo in July 2023, Chamari Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama helped crush New Zealand by 10 wickets to seal a historic win. While Sri Lanka will be looking for a consolation win, New Zealand will want to win big to strengthen their semi-final chances and boost their net run rate.
New Zealand squad:
Sophie Devine (capt), Suzie Bates, Eden Carson, Isabella Gaze, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Fran Jonas, Leigh Kasperek, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Molly Penfold, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu
Sri Lanka squad:
Chamari Athapaththu (capt), Harshitha Samarawickrama, Vishmi Gunaratne, Kavisha Dilshari, Nilakshika Silva, Hasini Perera, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Sachini Nisansala, Udeshika Prabodhani, Inoshi Priyadharshani, Achini Kulasuriya, Inoka Ranaweera, Shashini Gimhani, Ama Kanchana, Sugandika Kumari
Tournament form guide:
After beating India comprehensively in their opener, New Zealand were handed a thrashing by defending champions Australia, crumbling to 88 all out in the 149 chase. Sri Lanka have lost all three matches they’ve played so far in the tournament, with the loss against India putting them out of semi-final contention.
Player to watch:
Legspinning-allrounder Amelia Kerr is one of the most reliable players for New Zealand. Against Australia, she waged a lone fight, taking four wickets and top-scoring with 29 in the chase. She took three wickets in five balls, with Australian batters struggling to read her googlies on the Sharjah pitch. She is once again expected to be key for New Zealand at the same venue against the shaky Sri Lankan batting order.
An Australian side struck by two injuries marched to a third massive win over a depleted Pakistan team, who slumped to the lowest total of the tournament so far. The result leaves Pakistan all but out of knockout contention while Australia are now almost certain to qualify into the final four.
Pakistan were without their captain Fatima Sana, after the passing of her father, and senior seamer Diana Baig, who has not recovered from the leg injury that saw her leave the field after bowling one ball in their tournament opener, and they missed the pair’s enthusiasm and experience. Only one of their batters, Aliya Riyaz scored more than 20, while there were five scores of single figures, two ducks and no partnerships worth more than 19.
All that happened after Australia lost their quickest bowler, Tayla Vlaeminck – who was playing her first T20 World Cup match since 2018 – before she had even bowled a ball Vlaemink dislocated her shoulder while tumbling at short third in the first over of the game trying to cut off a boundary, and there’s a cloud over her participation in the remainder of the tournament.
Her absence did not stop Australia from making run-scoring difficult for Pakistan. They found the other six bowlers tough to get away, only scored their first boundary of the innings in the ninth over, and hit just four fours in all. Australia had struck that many by the third over of their innings.Alyssa Healey was responsible for five of them and seemed set to take Australia to victory but retired hurt in the 10th over, as she hobbled to complete a second run off Aroob Shah. Healy gingerly headed to the dressing room with a foot injury.
Elysse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner polished off the total in 11 overs, which has taken Australia’s net run-rate up to 2.786, leaving them almost assured of a final-four place. Their last group match is against India in Sharjah on Sunday. Pakistan face New Zealand on Monday.
Schutt shoots to the top
Megan Schutt had an exceptional first two matches in Sharjah, where she established herself as the most economical bowler of the tournament so far, but was also able to take wickets on a surface that offered very little assistance. She’d have been delighted to get to more helpful conditions in Dubai and started with two testing overs as she shaped the ball away from Muneeba Ali and into Sidra Amin. Schutt was given a third over in the powerplay, where she played with her lengths, and eventually drew Sadaf Shamas into a drive and Healy was convinced Shamas had hit it. She reviewed, successfully, to give Schutt her 144th T20I wicket – which took her to the top of the overall T20I wicket takers list. Schutt overtook one of the players in the opposition, Nida Dar, who had to come to the crease with Shamas’ dismissal. Pakistan were 18 for 2 after five overs and 23 for 2 at the end of six.
Awesome Ash Gardner
Pakistan were starting to rebuild – but only slightly – between the 10th and 16th over courtesy a 19-run stand between Iram Javed and Aliya Riaz though they always looked close to being separated. Gardner should have had Javed stumped on 10 when she came down the track and swung at a length delivery but Healy missed the chance.
It didn’t take too long for Gardner to get her own back. In her next over, she tossed one up and Iram could not resist going for a big one. She skied it towards deep mid-wicket where Georgia Wareham was completely unfussed by the ring of fire and took a good catch. Gardner’s final over was the innings’ penultimate and Pakistan had to go in search of runs. Off the second ball, Healy made no mistake when Tuba Hassan came down the track, swung, missed and was stumped. Aroob Shah hit Gardner’s second-last ball to Beth Mooney at mid-wicket and Nashra Sandhu was given out lbw off the last ball which turned past her inside-edge to hit her on the pad. Gardner finished with 4 for 21, her second-best figures in T20Is.
Healy, Mooney race away
Australia started their reply with eight runs off their first 11 balls, none of them boundaries. That was all they needed to see and began to cash in thereafter. Healy drove Dar through the covers to register Australia’s first boundary and the fours kept coming. Beth Mooney hit three off Sadia Iqbal’s opening over, demonstrating her strength through the offside and Healy followed up with two more off Sadaf Shamas. Australia were 36 without loss in the fifth over when Mooney hit Iqbal to Aliya Riaz on the edge of the inner ring at mid-off but the horse had bolted. They won with 54 balls remaining, and their excellent NRR means they’d have to lose by 61 or more runs against India to be displaced from No. 1.
Brief scores:
Australia Women 83 for 1 in 11 overs (Alyssa Healy 37, Ellyse Perry 22*; Sadia Iqbql 1-17) beat Pakistan Women 82 in 19.5 overs (Aliya Riaz 26; Megan Schutt 1-07, Sophie Molineux 1-19, Ashleigh Gardner 4-21, Annabel Sutherland 2-15, Georgia Wareham 2-16) by nine wickets
Police SC and CH & FC will lock horns in the inaugural match of the Sri Lanka Premier League Hockey Championship at 6.00 pm at the Astroturf at Reid Avenue today.
The inaugural match will be preceded by an opening ceremony attended by all participating teams.
The tournament is organised to provide the experience of a top-level competition and thereby pave the way for the next generation to be competitive at international level.
Eight local teams are taking part in this inaugural premier league tournament. They are Sri Lanka Army SC, Navy SC, Air Force SC, Police SC, BRC, Old Senanayaka SC, CR & FC and CH & FC.
The league is introduced by the ‘Next Generation Development Hockey Society’ inclusive of players who have represented Sri Lanka National team, Sri Lanka Junior National team and Sri Lanka Schools teams.
The event is conducted under the auspices of the Sri Lanka Hockey Federation.
Nearly 200 local players who have national and international exposure are expected to join a number of foreign players of international repute. They are inclusive of players who have led their national teams.
All matches of the tournament will be played at the Astroturf at Reid Avenue.
The winners of the tournament will receive a handsome cash award. The best player of the tournament, highest goal scorer and the best goalkeeper of the tournament will also be rewarded.
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