by Reemus Fernando  

The impressive national records established at the 99th National Athletics Championships were a welcome sign for track and field sport as it looks forward to overcoming the Covid 19 related setbacks ahead of a crucial and historical year. However, of the remarkable achievements recorded at the second and final leg of the championships, only two performances stand tall enough to match top Asian standards.

Sri Lanka’s athletics fraternity had to wait for 24 long years to see someone breaking the 14 seconds barrier in the men’s 110 metres hurdles untill Roshan Dhammika Ranatunga smashed the national record on his way to winning the title. First, the Army athlete took three milliseconds off the record (14.00 seconds) held by Olympian Mahesh Perera in the heats before improving it to 13.89 seconds in the final. It was a huge performance by Sri Lankan standards but during the 24 years the previous record had stagnated at 14 seconds the discipline had improved steadily in Asia. While the event’s global powerhouse, the US had witnessed its athletes breaking the 13 seconds barrier in the early 1980s, Asia saw a stunning performer emerge early in the millennium in China’s Xiang Liu who’s 12.88 seconds feat in 2006 (current Asian record) is ranked fourth in the all-time best performance list in the world. Though Asia has not seen such a fast performance in nearly one and a half decade, some two dozen athletes in Asia clock sub 14 seconds in the 110 metres hurdles every year. Roshan Dhammika’s performance is the joint 43rd fastest time in Asia this year according to the latest stats published by World Athletics.

Mahesh Perera had a sub 14.00 seconds wind-assisted feat in 1997 but was yet to touch that speed when he found a place in the team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Though Roshan Dhammika has now smashed Perera’s national record and even bettered Chaminda Fonseka’s wind-assisted feat of 13.91 seconds, he would find his record-breaking performance agonizingly inadequate even to be selected for next year’s Asian Games. Sri Lanka Athletics has suggested 13.48 seconds as the qualifying standard for the 2022 Asian Games and Roshan Dhammika has a few more months to accomplish the target.

Gayanthika Abeyratne probably produced the most stunning performances of her career lowering two national records within two days. Both feats were remarkable as she slashed good chunks from the previous national records in 1,500 metres and the 5,000 metres. A veteran in the 800 metres with several regional medals to her credit in that discipline, Abeyratne clocked 4:09.12 seconds to take some six seconds off Nimali Liyanarachchi’s 2019 records (4:15.86 secs). That is the fourth-fastest time by an Asian this year behind Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka, India’s Harmilan Bains and Japan’s Ran Urabe. With that stunning feat, she has certainly proved that she would be a deserving candidate for an Asian Games slot. Her record-breaking feat of 4:09.12 seconds is equivalent to the silver medal-winning feat of Ethiopian born Bahraini athlete Tigist Gashaw at the last Asian Games.

Abeyratne’s 15:55.84 seconds performance in the 5,000 metres was also remarkable by Sri Lankan standards as no other female athlete had run the distance below 16 minutes. US-based Hiruni Wijeratne and the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase national record holder Nilani Ratnayake had clocked 16 minutes and 17 seconds in 5,000 metres in August 2019 but no one has come close to breaking that record since then. But in Asia, some 80 athletes have clocked faster performances this year. Abeyratne’s new record mark will place her 82nd in a list dominated by Japanese distance runners.

Sarangi Silva’s long jump feat of 6.48 metres has placed her joint sixth in the list of Asian long jumpers this year. She is in prime form after bagging the national record of NCD Priyadharshani in June this year. With the new national mark, the South Asian Games medallist has come closer to the standard required to be in the team for the next Asian Games. The notable record will further boost her appetite for success in the Asian region. But for an Asian Games medal, she has to improve her record further. This year’s top Asian performance is 6.85 metres by Uzbekistan’s Darya Reznichenko. Sarangi will also have India’s B. Aishwarya (who has a feat of 6.52 metres this year) and three others who have done better than her best feat this year to compete against.

The other national record to fall during the two-day event was the women’s pole vault mark. Sachini Perera improved on her previous national record with a feat of 3.57 metres. Pole vault is a discipline in which Sri Lanka is still struggling to make an impact in the Asian region. Perera’s national record mark cannot even occupy the 100th position in the Asian region’s best performances this year. Yet her feat will augur well for the struggling discipline and will give impetus for her few rivals.

Though there were only two performances from the second leg of the National Championship which could rank among the top ten feats in Asia this year the five national records were a huge accomplishment for the competition starved sport. It should also be noted that the events held at the second leg were not among Sri Lanka Athletics’ top priority events. The governing body conducted the first leg before the Olympic qualifying period expired to help athletes who were on the border of Olympic qualifying standards.

Sri Lanka Athletics will conduct the 100th National Athletics Championships in a few months (April 2022) and that event will be the final selection opportunity for a number of international events that take place during the centenary year. Some of the athletes who excelled at the concluded second leg of the 99th National Championship are destined for greater glory at next years event.