Schoolboy Kalhara Idupa Silva joined an elite group of Sri Lanka’s 400 metres sprinters when he achieved a massive personal best time of 45.99 seconds to win the men’s 400 metres at the Western Province Athletics Championship of the National Sports Festival concluded at Diyagama on Sunday.

In the 100 year old track and field history in Sri Lanka only six men had run the one lap race under 46 seconds according to official counts. Idupa became the seventh athlete to accomplish the target and proved beyond doubt that the impressive performance displayed at the last selection trial was not a fluke.

Eyebrows were raised when he clocked 46.62 seconds in April to get selected to the Asian Championship in Gumi.

He also became the second athlete in the Under 20 age category to run the distance under 46 seconds. Reigning national champion Aruna Dharshana was the first.

Commenting on his achievement his coach Sumith Jayantha said that Idupa was groomed carefully to achieve success at senior level. “He did not get deceived by the talent scouts of Colombo schools. When he started winning podium places there were interest from Colombo schools. We have seen many talented athletes failing at senior level after peaking at junior level in those schools,” Jayantha said in an interview with The Island.

Sumith Jayantha (Coach)

“He deserves the support of a sponsor. He could not get the Mas Holding sponsorship as he could not attend the trial. I am hopeful the authorities would act swiftly to aupport him,” said Jayantha.

Idupa and national sprinter Sayuri Lakshima Mendis stole the limelight at the weekend when they bagged the best athlete titles of the Western Province Athletics Championship.

The 400 metres specialists were adjudged the most outstanding athletes for their impressive performamce during the two day meet where the winners of the three district meets of Colombo, Kalutara and Gampaha clashed for supremacy.

Indupa from Ananda Sastralaya Kotte excelled in both the men’s 200 metres and the 400 metres as he established new meet records in both events. The up and coming athlete who formed country’s 4×400 metres relay team with seasoned campaigner Kalinga Kumarage in Gumi, slashed nearly one second off the meet record when he stopped the clock under 46 seconds to win the 400 metres. In the 200 metres Idupa returned a time of 21.10 seconds.v

Lakshima clocked 53.93 seconds to win the 400 metres. She was adjudged the best athlete in the women’s category ahead of H.R.D. Sithmini who cleared 6.10 metres in the long jump.

by Reemus Fernando

It went down to the last over: 12 to get from six balls for either MI New York or Washington Freedom to win their  MLC title. Rushil Ugarkar, a 22-year-old USA medium pacer who has never played international cricket, had the ball. Across him, Glenn Maxwell, to start with, and Glenn Phillips.  Two white-ball superstars. But all Ugarkar conceded was six. And he sent back Maxwell with a slower offcutter, allowed Phillips strike for just one ball, and won MINY the title when everything was stacked against him.

Till that over started, the momentum was very much with Freedom and it was chiefly down to Phillips. At the end of the 17th over, in which Trent Boult had conceded just seven runs to Phillips and Maxwell, and Phillips was 25 from 27, the asking rate was upwards of 13 an over. But Phillips targeted Tristan Luus and Boult in back-to-back overs. He took Luus for two sixes in the 17-run 18th over, and Boult for one more in the next, which went for 12, making it a potentially gripping last over. But he got to face just one ball from Ugarkar, who bowled a set of six cutters to spark the celebrations in the MINY camp.

The chase started with Boult picking up two wickets in the first over of the innings to dent Freedom. However, to be fair, despite opener Rachin Ravindra scoring 70 from 41 balls after early jitters and Jack Edwards chipping in with 33 from 22, the Freedom innings didn’t seem to find the next gear they needed till Phillips got going. Maxwell, not for the first time this tournament – he largely struggled apart from when he scored 106* in a win over Texas Super Kings back on June 17 – couldn’t get the scoreboard moving at the rate required. And three MINY bowlers, including Ugarkar, went at eight an over or fewer, with Tajinder Singh’s three overs costing just 18 runs.