99th National Athletics Championship

by Reemus Fernando

Sixteen-year-old Tharushi Karunaratne reached qualifying standards for the World Junior Athletics Championship to provide consolation as seniors struggled in wet weather conditions to get closer to Olympic qualifying standards during the first stage of the 99th National Athletics Championship at the Sugathadasas Stadium on Friday.

Sri Lanka Athletics advanced the first stage of the National Championship to Friday in a bid to provide competition starved athletes a chance to strive for Olympic qualifying standards but wet weather battered the hopefuls preventing them from going for their best. The Sri Lanka Athletics took the decision after travel restrictions were announced for the weekend.

Dilshi Kumarasinghe, who established a new national record at the last meet, was the biggest casualty as she pulled out from the women’s 800 metres due to injury after a promising start. Kumarasinghe’s injury slowed the race down but gutty youngster Karunaratne made number three ranked Asian Nimali Liyanarachchi fight to win the title. In doing so Karunaratne returned a time of 2:07.21 seconds to finish second and bettered the entry standard (2:08.7 seconds )for the World Junior Championship to be held in Nairobi.

Tharushi is the younger sister of Asian Junior Championship medallist Harsha Karunaratne. Tharushi, who is also coached by Susantha Fernando, is the third Sri Lankan athlete to qualify for the World Junior event this year. Holy Cross College, Gampaha athlete Shanika Lakmali who reached qualifying standards earlier, also competed in the same discipline yesterday and was placed fourth in a time of 2:09.63 seconds.

While many struggled against wet conditions, Nilani Ratnayake, who (ranked 34th in the ‘Road to Olympics Rankings’) is the closest Sri Lankan to an Olympic berth, clocked 9:53.96 seconds to win the 3000 metres steeplechase. With the national champion guaranteed 100 ranking points plus the points for her performance, analysts believe that the athlete trained by Sajith Jayalal would improve her world rankings when the statistics are updated.

Rio Olympic participant Sumeda Ranasinghe had to settle for the second place in the men’s javelin as former champion Waruna Lakshan turned tables to win with a feat of 75.91 metres. Beijing Olympic participant Nadeeka Lakmali could clear only a distance of 48.55 metres in the women’s javelin. Dilhani Lekamge won the event with a throw of 52.88 metres.

Men’s long jump was won by Janak Prasad Wimalasiri but the distance of 7.80 metres was well behind the Olympic qualifying standard (8.22 metres).

Kalinga Kumarage clocked 46.12 seconds to win the men’s 400 metres beating Asian Junior Championship record holder Aruna Dharshana to the second place.

In the women’s 400 metres Nadeesha Ramanayake had little competition as Dilshi Kumarasinghe did not take part. She clocked 53.32 seconds to win.

Himasha Eshan, who was faster (10.38 secs) in the men’s 100 metres heats clocked 10.45 seconds to win the final followed by Sahan Rajapaksa (10.69 secs) and Chamod Yodasinghe (10.76 secs).

Amsha de Silva was hardly challenged in the women’s 100 metres. She clocked 11.89 seconds to win ahead of Shelinda Jansen (12.20 secs).