by Reemus Fernando

Steeplechaser Nilani Ratnayake was the first Sri Lankan to secure a top ranking in any Olympic sport to have hopes of qualifying for Tokyo Olympics. By end December 2020 she was ranked 35th in the world, well within the required range to secure a berth. But lack of competitions due to the Covid 19 pandemic saw her dropping lower in ranking.. By the time the qualifying period ended on June 29, Ratnayake had dropped to 46th position in the ‘Road to Olympics Rankings.’ That is one ranking position below the World Ranking quota places considered for qualification from this discipline. Yet Sri Lanka Athletics believes that the South Asian Games double gold medallist (1,500m, 5,000m) would get the opportunity to compete in Tokyo. How?

National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka jumped the gun and declared on Monday that both sprinter Yupun Abeykoon and Ratnayake have qualified for the Olympics. But technically World Athletics had not ranked her among the qualified athletes then. According to the latest rankings updated on Wednesday, Ratnayake was ranked 46th in the ‘Road to Olympics Rankings’.

According to the qualifying criteria, a steeplechaser needs to be ranked among the top 45 athletes to secure a ‘World Ranking quota’ place for the Tokyo Games or needs to clock sub nine minutes and 30 seconds to earn direct qualification. Ratnayake has a personal best of 9:46.76 seconds and a seasonal best of 9:53.96 seconds from the last National Championship which was conducted under unfavorable weather conditions. At her last attempt to reach direct qualifying standards or to secure ranking position among the top 45 athletes, Ratnayake could only return a time of 10:12.02 seconds. She was placed third behind Indian athletes at the 60th Interstate Athletics Championship in Patiala on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka Athletics statistician Saman Kumara said that Ratnayake has still got a chance to compete in Tokyo as few top ranked athletes are unlikely to take part in the Games. “Australia has three runners who have qualified for the event. But they are likely to send only one athlete. That means that there will be opportunity for Ratnayake,” said Saman Kumara.

“There are other countries who would send only one athlete to the Olympics despite more than one athlete reaching qualifying standards,” he said. He said that Ratnayake’s position will be known within the next couple of days.

According to World Athletics ‘Road to Olympic Rankings’ updated on Wednesday, Kenya, USA, Ethiopia, Germany, Canada, Australia and Hungary were dominating the top rankings. These countries were eligible to field at least three of their athletes for the Tokyo event.