Sports

National marathon, race walking, cycling at Kataragama in October

Published

4 years ago

2020/08/25

by Reemus Fernando

The National Marathon and three other grueling road events of the National Sports Festival will be held on October 10 and 11 at Kataragama. The Department of Sports Development of the Ministry of Sports sent documents pertaining to this major sports event to the Provincial Directors of Sports yesterday.

“We will conduct the event at Kataragama since it is convenient to provide logistics,” Jayantha Siyamudali who has been assigned to organise the event told The Island.

The Race Walking and Cycling events of the National Sports Festival will be held in Kataragama on October 10.

“Like in the last year we are going to conduct it as an open event to boost participation. However all applications should come through the Directors of Sports of each province,” said Siyamudali.

The decision to conduct it as an open event lessen the burden of Provincial authorities who otherwise have to conduct their own Provincial distance events to select participants for the national events.

Closing date for applications is September 30.

The decision to conduct the marathon. Race walking and cycling events is further confirmation that the National Sports Festival would be held later this year.

The three grueling road events of the national sports festival will be the first major sports events conducted by the Department of Sports development after all sports came to a halt due to the corona virus pandemic in March.

The national marathon is returning to Kataragama after a lapse of seven years.

Sri Lanka Army’s Tissa Gunasekara was the winner when the event was held at Kataragama in 2013.

Last year the event was conducted at Anuradhapura.

Dhammika Arunasiri in the men’s category and Nisansala Bandara in the women’s category are the defending champions.

Country’s distance runners have been yearning for competitions since the last National Marathon.

Marathoners were hampered by the absence of top events including the Colombo Marathon organised by LSR following the Easter Sunday blasts in 2019 and due to the covid 19 pandemic this year.

Many international marathons including major Asian marathons have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

This year’s edition of the LSR Colombo Marathon too remain doubtful. The annual event which is the only international marathon held in Sri Lanka is held in the first week of October.

A top official of the Lanka Sportreizen said that a fresh request to conduct the event has been sent to the AIMS, the world governing body of marathons.

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Sports

Pant, Axar star in Delhi Capital’s nervy final-over win over Gujarat Titans

Published

1 hour ago

2024/04/25

Priyan

Rishabh Pant blasted a 43-ball 88 (Cricbuzz)

Delhi Capitals rode on their captain’s incredible knock of 88 from 43 balls to eke out a narrow four-run victory over Gujarat Titans, despite the best efforts of Sai Sudharsan, David Miller and Rashid Khan to stop the hosts from doing the double over them. Pant’s knock, along with Axar Patel’s essay (66 off 43) and Tristan Stubbs’s late cameo (26 off 7) turbo-charged DC’s innings well past the 200-run mark, and yet proved to be just about enough to pick the two points in the end.

Brief Scores:
Delhi Capitals 224/4 in 20 overs (Rishabh Pant 88*, Axar Patel 66, Jake Fracer-McGurk 23, Tristan Stubbs 26*; Sandeep Warrier 3-15, Noor Ahmad 1-36) beat Gujarat Titans 220/8 in 20 overs (Sai Sudharsan 65, David Miller 55, Wriddhiman Saha 39, Rashid Khan 21*; Anrich Nortje 1-48, Rasikh Salam 3-44, Mukesh Kumar 1-41, Axar Patel 1-28, Kuldeep Yadav 2-29) by 4 runs

Sports

Akalanka, Abisheka qualify for finals

Published

8 hours ago

2024/04/25

Sahan Weerasooriya

Tharushi Abisheka and Ayomal Akalanka

Asian Junior Athletics Championships

by Reemus Fernando

Ambagamuwa Central hurdler Ayomal Akalanka who was included in the team at the eleventh hour qualified for the finals of the men’s 400 metres hurdles as he came almost close to matching his personal best time on day one of the Asian Junior Athletics Championships in Dubai on Wednesday.

Akalanka clocked 52.96 seconds to finish second in his heat and qualify for the finals.

Sri Lanka Athletics decided to drop him from the team after the Commonwealth Youth Game medallist failed to reach qualifying standards at the trials. He was included at the eleventh hour on the request of the Sports Minister who heeded an appeal. Akalanka will compete in the final on Friday.

Young Tharushi Abisheka provided the Sri Lankan team a morale boosting start as she qualified for the final of the women’s 800 metres in the morning.

Abisheka is the youngest member in the team and is eligible even to compete at the next edition of this Under 20 event in 2026. The Wickramabahu National School Gampola athlete finished third in her heat and will carry the third fastest time to the final which will be held on Friday.

In the men’s 100 metres, Merone Wijesinghe of Ananda College Colombo finished fourth in his heat.

When this edition went to press women’s team captain Madushani Herath of Nannapurawa MV Bibila was competing in the women’s triple jump.

Sri Lanka fielded a team of 17 athletes including four relay teams for the four-day regional event.

Sports

Saneshi wins three titles at Bandarawela

Published

8 hours ago

2024/04/25

Sahan Weerasooriya

Saneshi Willoraarachchi

Saneshi Willoraarachchi won three titles at the Bandarawela Open Ranking Tennis Tournament.

The Musaeus College player won the women’s open singles, women’s open doubles and the Under 18 girls’ doubles.

She beat Inuki Jayaweera 6-4, 6-3 in the women’s open singles final and joined the latter to score a 4-2, 5-4 win in the doubles final against Lihini Jayakody and Diyana de Silva.

Saneshi and Inuki overcame a first set defeat to beat Gehansa Methnadi and Sandithi Usgodaarachchi 0-4, 5-4, 10-6 for the Under 18 doubles title.